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Amendment to let funding 'follow' students fails after heated House debate
Summary
Delegates debated a school‑choice amendment to House Bill 534 that would have allowed state funds to follow students in '1‑star' schools to private or military boarding schools; the amendment was rejected on a roll call (93‑negative). Supporters cited long‑running literacy and safety concerns in some districts; opponents said the change was outside the bill’s subject and should be handled as a separate measure.
A proposal to let state education funding 'follow' students trapped in chronically failing schools failed in the House of Delegates on Feb. 27 after an extended floor debate and a roll‑call vote.
The amendment, offered by the delegate from Calvert County, would have allowed a student attending a public school with a 1‑star rating for three consecutive years to take equivalent funds to a nonpublic school of the family's choice — including, the sponsor said, military boarding schools for students identified as habitually violent or disruptive. The sponsor described the change as a remedy for persistent literacy and discipline problems and cited statistics and passages from the book Failure Factory to make the case that some students are not learning under current arrangements.
Supporters, including delegates who said they had personal experience in struggling school systems, said the amendment would give parents options when local schools repeatedly fail to educate children. One proponent told colleagues the measure would 'empower that kid and that kid's parents' to find a better educational fit.
Opponents argued the amendment reached far beyond the bill before the chamber. The floor leader urged members to 'stick to the bill,' noting that the pending measure was about access to transcripts for certain nonpublic schools and that the sponsor's proposal largely duplicated the substance of a separate bill pending elsewhere (House Bill 1039). Members warning against adding wide policy changes on the floor said the proper vehicle for such a policy change was a standalone bill and committee process.
After debate, the chamber called a roll‑call vote. The clerk announced there were 93 votes in the negative and the amendment failed. Because no other amendments were adopted, the bill was auto‑printed for third reading in its original form as reported by committee.
The next step for the bill is third reading on the chamber floor. The House also continued with its calendar and other committee reports for the day.
