Extra Than 80 Non-public, Parochial Faculties Apply to Take part in New Voucher Program

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Greater than 80 personal and parochial colleges in Arkansas have to date utilized to take part within the state’s new college voucher program that permits eligible college students to make use of taxpayer funds to assist pay tuition, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The newspaper stated that dozens of faculties and greater than 4,900 college students have to date utilized to take part in this system.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March signed an schooling invoice that included the creation of the new school voucher program. Over three years, it can part in an “schooling freedom account” to pay for private- and home-schooling prices equal to 90% of the state’s per-student funding for public colleges, which is at present $7,413.

The laws got here as a part of a renewed push for such voucher applications following the COVID-19 pandemic and fights over college curriculum.

The newspaper experiences that eligibility this yr is proscribed to those that both will likely be getting into kindergarten, attended a state F-graded college final yr, have a incapacity, are kids of lively army personnel or have skilled homelessness or foster care. The coed eligibility standards will broaden over the subsequent two years.

The newspaper reported that greater than 4,900 college students had opened functions for the vouchers of $6,672 for use this college yr. The coed quantity consists of authorised functions, these in evaluation, and people within the draft course of, Division of Elementary and Secondary Training spokesperson Kimberly Mundell stated.

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