Nevada Could Soon Become the 26th School Choice State

The Nevada legislature has passed Assembly Bill 165, a tax-credit scholarship for children from low-income families. The bill passed the Assembly on a 25-17 party line vote. The Senate passed the bill 11-9. The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Sandoval’s desk, where we are confident he will sign it, creating Nevada’s first school choice program.

Here are a few details to consider:

– Student Funding: The Nevada Department of Taxation will administer this tax-credit scholarship program. These scholarships are funded by private donations, and no state funds of any kind are given to the SGOs to provide scholarships to students.
– Student Eligibility: Students from families whose household income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($72,750 for a family of four) are eligible to receive scholarships from approved SGOs.
– Scholarship Amount: The amount of the scholarships students are awarded can be no larger than $7,775, and that number will be indexed to the consumer price index. That means as goods get more expensive, the scholarship amount will rise in response.

Gov. Sandoval’s signature will usher Nevada into the school choice family as the 26th state with a private school choice program. With that, more than half of the states in the U.S. will offer some level of school choice to families in need of learning options. The legislation will become active upon passage, and the first scholarships could be granted during the 2015-16 school year.

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