South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem called for the creation of a school choice program for students in her state, announcing an initial $4 million investment in the project that she said she hopes will become standard.
“Good education starts in the home,” Noem said in a Dec. 3 press conference. “And parents should have the tools to choose what educational path is best for their kids. I am proposing that we establish Education Savings Accounts [ESA] for South Dakota students in this upcoming legislative session.”
She committed to investing $4 million in state funding to start the initiative, which would provide scholarships of up to $3,000 each for students with low incomes.
Noem said the vouchers might be used to pay for private tuition or to purchase curricula for alternative education providers.
“Our goal is to expand the program,” the governor said. “My hope is that these ESAs will ultimately be available to every student in South Dakota.”
Private school choice encompasses a variety of ways of allowing funding to follow the child, including vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax-credit scholarships.
Those methods are used to provide financial assistance to educational institutions that are not considered typical public schools.
During the past few years, the concept of providing this option to all families—regardless of their income—has become increasingly popular.
Universal school choice has now been codified in legislation in 12 states, and almost three dozen states offer some kind of private school choice.
Noem’s push for the program has a solid chance of survival, considering that the November election allowed Republicans to further expand their supermajorities in both chambers of the South Dakota Legislature, for a total of 64–6 in the state House of Representatives and 32–3 in the Senate.
If Noem is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as secretary of Homeland Security, she will resign from her current position as governor of South Dakota.
South Dakota isn’t the only state grappling with the issue of school choice. Following the election, the issue of parent-guided education has been on the minds of state and federal officials.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have both spoken extensively about their intention to pass school vouchers with the newly elected state Legislature.
Abbott, who has supported the initiative, said at a Nov. 11 press conference that 79 “true, hardcore school choice proponents” are now in the Texas House following the Nov. 5 election, where 76 votes would be needed.
President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he is in support of the idea, and Jim Blew, who was an assistant secretary in the U.S. Education Department during the first Trump administration, expressed optimism that the new Congress will approve proposals such as tax credits for scholarships.
“The new members are all very clearly supportive of school choice, and I think that’s going to change the dynamics,” said Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute.
According to Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, the president-elect is on board with school choice and plans to use his platform to push the issue in the coming years.
“We have a mandate now to do great things for people who voted for freedom,” Conway said, stating that many wealthy Democrat leaders send their children to the most elite, expensive private schools but veto school choice legislation.
However, not all states are on board with the programs; measures that would have expanded state financing for private schools or safeguarded certain types of school choice were defeated by voters in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Colorado.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.