Pasadena Group Hopes to Place School Choice Initiative on 2022 Ballot

Californians for School Choice have officially submitted a school choice initiative to the California Attorney General for the November 2022 election.

According to the group, if approved by voters, the Education Freedom Act would bring true school choice to all K-12 students in the state who choose to opt into the proposed program. The initiative is designed to ensure that state education funding will follow the student.

“Under the Education Freedom Act, the money will follow the student instead of the zip code,” said Mike Alexander, chair of Californians for School Choice in a prepared statement. “Parents wanting to leave the disastrous public school system would receive a yearly tuition credit of $14,000 per child to attend a private or religious school of their choice and save any money left over for college, vocational training or other qualified expense.”

Alexander previously led the Pasadena Patriots, an arm of the Tea Party.

According to a statement released on Wednesday, the Education Freedom Act has four key components:

• An Education Savings Account (“ESA”) will be established for each K-12 child in California on request. The Act treats all K-12 California students equally.

• Each year, that account will be credited with the student’s share of what are known as Prop. 98 funds. That share will rise to over $14,000 per year. The act is designed to be tax neutral and does not impose any changes to public education. All programs under Prop. 98 will continue as before. Students who leave public school will have their fair share of Prop. 98 funds only, which will follow them to the accredited private school of their choice.

• Parents can direct those funds to a participating public, charter, or accredited private or religious school. Private schools must be accredited and conform with local health and safety standards. There will be no curriculum or hiring requirements. There are no caps on the savings account.

• Any unspent funds will accumulate and can be spent on college, vocational training or other qualified educational expenses. Funds not spent by the time a student reaches age 30 will be returned to the treasury.

The Education Freedom Act is designed to encourage free market competition, according to Alexander. “This will cause schools, both public and private, to improve performance and lower costs to get their fair share of education dollars. By empowering parents to take advantage of how schools will have to compete for funding will lead to improved customer service at all schools, both public and private,” he said.

Leaders of Californians for School Choice, a citizen group of grassroots volunteers who want to expand the education opportunities for all K-12 students in California, believe that one of the side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting shutdowns of classrooms, was parents learning the failures of California’s public education system. They also realized that many who stayed lacked the resources to home-school or take advantage of higher performance private schools that stayed open.
“Trapped in the worst schools by their poverty and their zip code, poor and minority students suffer the most,” said Alexander. “A poor education ensures that the cycle of poverty will continue. Without equal access to a quality education, future Californians will lack the knowledge and skills they need to participate fully in the complex economy of the future.”

The initiative will require 1 million valid signatures to qualify because it amends the state Constitution. Californians for School Choice plans an aggressive statewide signature gathering effort. The organization will have 180 days to gather the signatures after the attorney general approves the initiative for title and summary. The approval from the attorney general for the ballot placement is expected sometime in September.