While the North Carolina voucher program makes its way through the legal system, lawmakers in Alaska and Indiana debate the merits and drawbacks of voucher programs there.
• This week, a superior court judge in North Carolina refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the state’s new voucher program, which would allow certain families to receive state money to use for private school tuition, reports WRAL.com. Two separate lawsuits, from the North Carolina Association of Educators and the North Carolina School Boards Association, have been filed to challenge the legality of the program. The judge will decide shortly whether vouchers may be distributed while the lawsuits are working their way through the court system. (Read more about the expansion of school choice in North Carolina here.)
• It appears that support for an amendment to the Alaska state constitution that would pave the way for a voucher program there is waning, says this article in the Alaska Dispatch. While Gov. Sean Parnell, a Republican, appeared to tie the passage of the amendment to an increase in per-pupil funding for all schools in his State of the State speech this year, he has since backed off that position, the article reports. Although the amendment passed through the Senate judiciary committee, it does not appear to have enough support to win a vote on the floor, says Sen. Berta Gardner, a Democrat.
• And in Indiana, a bill to further study a proposed pre-K voucher program in the state was passed unanimously by the state Senate’s Education and Career Development Committee, reports the Indy Star. The bill establishes a commission that would look into 10 topics before such a voucher program would be established. Those topics include how the program would be overseen, how other states ensure accountability in preschools, and the economic impacts of preschool programs, among others.