The Finance Committee met this morning to discuss an originating bill.
The originating bill would amend the Hope Scholarship Program. Counsel explained the changes would be:
- Setting the annual amount to a flat $5250; this removes the funding link to school aid; $250 would go to the State Treasurer for administration of the program, and Hope students would receive $5000
- Requires participating school to be in state, if a brick-and-mortar school; In FY25, $1.7 million went to out-of-state schools; virtual-online programs are not addressed as out-of-state schools
- Removes provision requiring parents to “afford the Hope Scholarship student opportunities for educational enrichment such as organized athletics, art, music, or literature;” parents may choose to do this, but won’t be required
- Sets the payments for the Hope Scholarship to 4 times a year instead of 2
- Eliminates the following qualifying expenses:
- AP exams, college admission exams, and prep courses for AP or college admission exams
- Tutoring services
- After school or summer programs
- Instruments/equipment as part of the music education course/curriculum
- Limiting nonpublic virtual online programs to only tuition and fees for the curriculum
- Limits transportation cost
- Focuses on tuition, fees, and curriculum
- Technology continues to be a qualifying expense, but the board can limit purchasing, as it is currently
- Require students under Individualized Instructional Programs to take the statewide student growth assessment required of public-school students; cost would be a covered qualifying expense, and the data would be used as it is for public schools
- The bill would be effective for FY28
