The Poor Might Yet End Up Packing Our Private Schools

   This will be interesting. Go ahead, read Utah HB 215 -- the new law providing state money to children attending private schools -- then tell me if it doesn't mean only children from lower-income families will end up being accepted.

   All the spots will be taken well before students from middle-income families can be reached. 

   Nor does the new law seem to exclude from qualification children of traditional or undocumented immigrants. With the number of immigrants who are poor, it would seem they will be pushed to the top of the qualifying list. 

   It's a long read, but please just read that little, little bit that applies. Go down to line 400 of HB 215 and pick it up. It spells  out, "an enrollment preference based on the following order of preference." 

   The first preference is that those who were in the program the previous year shall be given priority in the subsequence year. Since the program is new, no one will have been in it the previous year. So, on to the second preference.

   The second preference is that the scholarships shall go "to an eligible student who did not use a scholarship account in the previous year; and with a family income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level."

   An estimate 11 percent of Utah's families are below the poverty level. And, if you expand that to include families who make twice (200%) the poverty level, even a greater chunk of the scholarships could be taken by the poor. Further stretching the new law so it might potentially be filled only by those from lower-income families, HB 215 specifies that another priority is that once the really poor have been taken care of, then those "with a family income between 200% and 555% of the federal poverty level" shall be given preference. 

   HB 215 presumes about $40 million will be allocated for the scholarships, which is only enough to provide for about 5,000 students. By that, it would seem the money will be long gone before it reaches families from middle incomes . . .

   If, that is, enough children from lower-income families apply. They might not even know the program exists. They might prefer public schools to private. Then, there is that provision in HB 215 that says that to be eligible, "a scholarship student or the scholarship student's parent shall annually complete and deliver to the program manager a portfolio describing the scholarship student's educational opportunities and achievements under the program for the given year." Will that requirement intimitate some of the poor from applying? 

   But, answering all the reasons why poor people might choose not end up participating is a provision in the law requiring the administrator of the scholarships to report to the state on his or her "strategy and outreach efforts to reach eligible students whose family income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level." Thus, it seems they are required to go out and recruit the near-poverty students. If they are being told about the program and encouraged to participate, it would seem there will be no problem gathering together 5,000 children from low-income families. Plus, it might even be argued the program administrators should help them qualify, for that fits within the mandate to reach out to them.

   It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Here's hoping the poor will, indeed, be given the full preference spelled out in HB 215. I will confess, though, wondering whether those who voted for the bill won't regret their votes if the large share of the scholarships go to children of undocumented immigrants.