Started in 2011, what are formally known as 鈥渆ducation scholarship accounts鈥 were designed for students with special needs. But proponents have incrementally expanded it to where it now also includes foster children, reservation residents and children attending schools rated D and F.
The new law removes all those conditions. But backers had to agree on a cap of enrollment of 30,000 by 2023.
Whether it becomes law, however, is another question. Foes of giving out more vouchers of tax dollars to let children go to private and parochial schools filed petitions Tuesday with more than 111,000 signatures to force the issue to a public vote.
If they have at least 75,321 valid signatures on referendum petitions, the law would remain on 鈥渉old鈥 until November 2018, when voters would get the last word on whether to ratify or veto the change.
