As I wrote recently, most parents, if given the opportunity, would get their kids out of public school pronto. Yet doing so requires money, and the cold, hard truth is that most parents are not made of money…in fact, they’re often lucky if they don’t live paycheck to paycheck. So where in the world would a parent get the money to send their child to private school or some other place of learning besides public school?
The answer is to let the hard-earned dollars that these parents (and grandparents and aunts and uncles) pay in taxes to support public schools follow the individual child. Known as an Education Savings Account or an ESA, this innovative school choice option “allow[s] parents to withdraw their children from public district or charter schools and receive a deposit of public funds into government-authorized savings accounts with restricted, but multiple, uses,” EdChoice explains. In other words, ESAs work a lot like a Health Savings Account (HSA), only for kids and their education expenses rather than an adult and his healthcare costs.
Depending on the ESA program, a family can use these education dollars for tuition, textbooks, tutoring, or other learning opportunities such as music lessons. Some ESA programs even allow unused dollars to roll over into a college fund.
I asked a friend of mine recently if she’d be interested in an ESA for her three children who range in age from 8 to 12. “Definitely!” was her immediate answer.
My friend is not alone in this sentiment. According to EdChoice, 75% of Americans in 2023 support ESAs, as the chart below shows:
And why wouldn’t they? After all, ESAs sound like a win-win for parents and children.
So…does Minnesota offer them?
Sadly, no…but the good news is that our neighbor to the south, Iowa, does. In fact, the state just launched ESAs in 2023, offering them to incoming kindergarteners and “students who previously attended a public school.” By the 2025-26 school year, all of Iowa’s students will be eligible for an ESA, which currently provides about $7,500 per child.
Given that, Minnesota’s leadership and education system should beware. Iowa may not be much to look at, but if it offers a chance at a better future through a private education because of ESAs, parents and kids just may be making a run for the Iowa border in droves within the next few years.
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Image Credit: Flickr-Ken Teegardin, CC BY-SA 2.0
