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Senate committee debates rival school-choice bills and cost estimates; no final vote
Summary
Committee members debated two competing school-choice proposals (bills labeled 2300/2400 in committee work), fiscal projections and program design, but did not take final action. Discussion focused on eligibility, take-up rates, per-student allocations and protections for public districts.
The Senate Education Committee spent an extended committee-work period discussing two school-choice proposals under consideration (referred to in committee as bills 2300 and 2400). Committee members and witnesses debated program design, projected costs and potential effects on rural districts and public-school finance, but the committee took no final votes on either bill during the session recorded in the transcript.
Senator Wabam (sponsor of a broadly written Education Savings Account-style proposal discussed in committee) walked the committee through a redlined amendment and a fiscal worksheet he prepared. He said the Department of Public Instruction’s preliminary fiscal note omitted a 20% adjustment factor; with corrected assumptions and an assumed 45% take-up rate the sponsor’s worksheet reduced an initial high-end estimate to…
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