House Education Committee Hears Hours of Testimony on MAPS school‑choice tax‑credit proposal

HELENA — The Montana House Education Committee on Wednesday heard more than three hours of testimony on House Bill 320, a school‑choice proposal sponsored by Representative Lee Deming that would create the Montana Academic Prosperity Program, or MAPS. The bill would allow families to access education tax credits or privately managed education assistance accounts capped at about $7,000 per student and would be administered through a nonprofit program manager and a volunteer MAPS council.

Representative Lee Deming, R‑Laurel, introduced the bill and told the committee, “MAPS is a privately funded tax credit program that every K‑12 student can access to pay for education options that will best fit their needs.” He described the education assistance amount as “up to about $7,000 annually.”

The bill’s proponents — a mix of parents, private‑school leaders and school‑choice advocacy groups — framed MAPS as a way to expand options for families who want alternatives to local public schools. Trish Schreiber, senior education fellow at the Frontier Institute, said MAPS “is a single program administered by a nonprofit program manager with two points of entry” and described built‑in transparency and a lottery for oversubscription. Sue Vinton, a State Senator speaking as a private citizen, said MAPS “is a universal program that offers all children all the educational options available in our state.” Leslie Heiner, an attorney with EdChoice, told the committee she had been “intimately involved in the Espinosa case” and said the bill had been drafted with constitutional…