All You Need to Know About ESAs

Education Savings Accounts are public funds that parents can use for their children to attend private or charter schools instead of public schools. These funds can cover private school tuition, online learning, private tutoring, community college costs and more. 

Ten states now offer ESAs to families and over 30 states have a total of 65 school choice programs available. IWN will soon offer Virginia mothers an action alert opportunity to contact education committee members about this matter, as well. 

The states with ESAs include:

• Arizona
• Florida 
• Indiana 
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• Tennessee 
• West Virginia
• Georgia
• Pennsylvania 
• Utah

Some states are moving toward ESAs. For example, Virginia has a small tax credit scholarship program that needs an overhaul or needs to be replaced with an ESA.

Read more about the power of ESAs: 

• More about ESAs from Ed Choice here
• EdNews Virginia
• School Choice Myths: Setting the Record Straight on Education Freedom
• The Goldwater Institute: A Decade of Success: How Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Have Saved Students & Inspired a National Movement
• Beanie’s Blog
• Education: It’s Time for a War on Mentality
• The School Choice Election Wave
• State Policy Network: Everything to Know About ESAs

Want to advocate for ESAs or help spread the word? Here are some ways you can do that: 

• Advocate for ESAs
• Education Freedom Institute (EFI)
• Check out Odyssey, a company that connects parents and education vendors in states with ESAs and microgrants.
• The Cardinal Institute, which includes a focus on educational freedom.
• Hope Scholarship (West Virginia) gives families the ability to choose educational models and therapies that work for them. 
• The Texas Homeschool Coalition works to ensure that Texas families have the freedom to homeschool without burdensome government regulations and intervention. 
• West Virginia Families United for Education

IWN Interviews on ESAs: 

• Katie Switzer: West Virginia Offers Parents Hope with Education Savings Accounts
• Texas Mamas Want Education Freedom
• Virginia Needs Education Freedom
• Joe Connor: How to Customize Your Child’s Education
• Matt Beienburg: Arizona’s Universal Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA)
• Pursuing Truth, Virtue and Excellence Through Education Freedom
• Arizona’s Historic Education Freedom Expansion
• Laura Fischer: The Education System Fails Teachers and Students
• Education Freedom Wins in West Virginia
• Corey DeAngelis: “Parents, Call Your State Legislator!”
• Corey DeAngelis on Empowering Parents Through Education Freedom