Panel debates major rewrite of House Bill 1540 creating education savings accounts; questions linger on testing, administration and account controls

The Senate Education Committee spent much of its hearing reviewing a reworked amendment to House Bill 1540, a proposal to create education savings accounts (ESAs) and assign administration duties to the Bank of North Dakota and a hired administrator.

Lawmakers and witnesses debated structural changes to the amendment, testing and data-collection requirements, whether the program should use a marketplace model or a third‑party administrator, and how the bill should handle refunds and account closures.

The amendment reorganization presented by Senator Wabamah directed a number of clarifications: rewriting the “eligible student” definition, specifying that participating nonpublic schools are those that charge tuition, changing allowance of “professional tutoring services” language, lengthening the acceptable replacement cycle for purchased hardware from one year to three, and specifying that refunds must be deposited back into the student’s education savings account rather than refunded to parents. Representative Ben Koppelman, the bill sponsor, told committee members the draft was intended to give the Bank of North Dakota…