(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Silver State lawmakers have sent an account-based choice bill to Governor Sandoval. With a signature Nevada will have the most robust parental choice program in the country. All students having previously attended public schools will be eligible to receive a use-restricted account to pursue their K-12 education under state oversight. Bill specifics from FF. No existing law can match this measure’s combination of broad eligibility and multiple uses- education choice, not just school choice.
Jason Bedrick has some useful details about why this is an especially great policy for Nevada (Las Vegas public schools = deluged with enrollment growth). The Nevada Constitution guarantees public education, it’s not going anywhere, and it needs all the help it can get. The overwhelming experience of previous choice programs demonstrates that there will be no mad exodus. Instead the program will take the edge off of a crushing rate of public school enrollment growth and create a crucial exit option that will provide positive pressure to improve.
Nevada lawmakers have made history-an experiment in liberty giving parents the ability to customize the education of their child. Big problems require bold leadership: hats off to Silver State legislators! Congrats also to the #Team ESA folks scattered across multiple organizations who worked so hard and effectively on this effort.
P.S.
!!!!!!!!BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
How does this address the issue of public funds paying for religious schooling?
Religious schools will be one of the options for parents to choose from, and an analysis of the NV constitution from our happy warriors at the Institute for Justice holds that it will survive court challenge:
Click to access IJ-ALEC-school-choice.pdf
You ought include the count of states with ESA/voucher/tax credit legislation. We’re up to what? Twenty-one?
More than that- with a signature NV becomes ESA state number five: AZ, FL, MS, TN and NV.
Off the top of my head I think there are scholarship tax credits in AZ, PA, FL, IA, MS, AL, GA, SC, RI, KS, OK, IN, VA, MT, NV
Vouchers: WI, OH, FL, OK, GA, LA, AR, Douglas County Co, NC, IN, VT, ME
Direct tax credit programs in IA, MN, IL
That looks like a majority of states have a program.
Looks like you’re right. Too bad so few people know about it. Might help to ignite interest in the wider public to realize alternatives are so common.
Most of these programs are small and/or restricted to specific populations, and that has hindered wider public engagement. Thankfully the new Nevada program does not have this problem!
Yes, it is hard to keep track of all the programs. Any specific count is doomed to be outdated within a matter of weeks. I remember back in 2009 when Jay Mathews, Diane Ravitch, and others declared the death of school vouchers. Since then we’ve seen the passage of something like 20 new programs. When prognosticators on the left are wrong about school choice, at least they are colossally wrong!
Perhaps we can request another prediction of doom from Anrig the next time we hit a lull:
https://jaypgreene.com/2008/05/14/school-choice-dead/
The big task now will be non-legislative: organizing educational entrepreneurs to take advantage of the opportunity here on a large scale.