New Tools to Help Legislators Make Education Choice Policy Decisions

New Tools to Help Legislators Make Education Choice Policy Decisions

NCSL's latest web-based resources define policy terms and make it easy to compare state-level trends.

NCSL's Education Program has developed several new tools to help lawmakers navigate the education choice policy landscape. These web-based resources include a set of standardized definitions and a series of policy scans allowing lawmakers to compare state-level trends.

Overview of NCSL's Resources

To help lawmakers establish a common language for discussion, NCSL has developed a standardized set of definitions for key terms in the education choice space. These definitions delineate between different types of education choice policies and clarify other related terms, including public and private school choice.

In addition, NCSL has established a series of policy scans to help lawmakers better understand the complex world of school choice. Each policy scan details the current landscape for a given education choice policy and contains two key components: an expanded definition of the policy and a table highlighting states' policies with references to the corresponding statutes. These scans allow lawmakers to easily ascertain high-level policy trends and determine which states have adopted various policies.

The Education Choice Policy Landscape

The information compiled in NCSL's definitions and policy scans presents a clear picture of the current education choice environment nationwide:

• Charter schools are publicly funded and independently operated schools of choice that have greater autonomy in operations in exchange for increased accountability. Forty-six states, Washington, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico have laws governing charter schools.
• Open enrollment provisions allow students to attend schools outside their assigned attendance zones. Thirty-three states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have enacted intradistrict open enrollment policies that allow students to attend any public school within their home district. Forty-five states have enacted interdistrict open enrollment policies, allowing students to attend public schools outside their home districts.
• Voucher programs provide state education funding to families to pay for their eligible students' nonpublic school tuition. Nine states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico operate voucher programs.
• Tax-credit scholarships give tax credits to individuals and businesses when they donate to scholarship-granting organizations, which then award scholarships to cover students' nonpublic school tuition. Eighteen states have established tax-credit scholarship programs.
• Education savings account programs route state education funding into authorized accounts that families can use to pay for an eligible student's approved educational expenses. Eighteen states have established ESAs.
• Tax-credit ESA programs provide tax credits to individuals and businesses for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which route the donated funds into authorized accounts. Families can use the funds to pay for an eligible student's approved educational expenses. Three states have adopted tax-credit ESAs.
• Tax credits and deductions provide families with income tax relief through credits or deductions for approved educational expenses. Twelve states offer such programs, which may be refundable or nonrefundable.

Federal Tax-Credit Scholarship

In addition to these state-level tools, NCSL tracks developments around the new federal tax-credit scholarship program established by the federal tax cut and domestic policy law signed by President Donald Trump in July. See this State Legislatures News article for more about the scholarship, how the program will work, allowed uses of scholarship funds, states' role in the program's implementation and the process for determining scholarship-granting organizations.

NCSL's new web-based resources can help lawmakers easily navigate the education choice policy landscape and state-level activity. With streamlined and accessible information, NCSL hopes to make it easy for policymakers to stay abreast of trends in the fast-moving education choice ecosystem.

James Hanafee is an intern in NCSL's Education Program.