Statehouse Express: Season 4, Episode 9
Hey Folks! This is John Elcesser, Executive Director of INPEA, and welcome to the 9th episode of the Statehouse Express!
Friends, we are now formally on the home stretch of this legislative session. From all indications we have only 4 more days to go!
As you probably know, we have recently co-hosted 5 school choice rallies around the state, including our last one, which was virtual. As a result, over the past few weeks, we have seen 1630 email engagements through our legislative action center (and that number continues to grow). IQE has seen similar results on their site. And that does not include all the phone calls that were made. To all of you who have reached out to your elected representatives, THANK YOU! But we are not done yet!!!
Now let me give you a quick update. As we have shared before, the House version of the budget had significant expansions to the voucher and tax credit programs. And then, the Senate Appropriations removed all of those expansions in their version of the budget. They also removed any aspects of choice from HB 1591 as well. It certainly felt like a slap to non-public schools.
Last week the budget conference committee met to attempt to reconcile their differences. Both INPEA & IQE asked that the house expansions be returned to the budget. We are now awaiting the conference committee report to see the result of the “budget horse trading” done by key leadership. Our advocacy efforts have been focused on the Senate since they have been our biggest challenge. We will soon be sending out one final alert and ask for one last big push. Following the release of the Senate Budget, there seems to be a growing positive vibe regarding salvaging some or all of the school choice expansions, even among some Senators. We will know soon enough, but we have to keep the pressure on!
IQE and EdChoice have invested in paid media. You may have heard some of the radio ads. There has also been an investment in digital advertising as well.
The other choice bill we have been following is HB 1591. It was in Conference Committee on Monday. We assumed the author Rep. Behning will attempt to return the language to the House version, which could include, the fees and birthdate fix as well as expanding the SGO funds usage to PreK tuition. Today I learned the fees and birthdate language will not be in the HB 1591 CC report. It was felt that would be better placed in the budget. We will keep you posted on all of this as it unfolds.
During our next and final podcast for this legislative session, we will update you on the many other bills that impact non-public schools as well.
Until that time, keep the pressure on! 4 days and counting!
See you back here next week for the final episode of the Statehouse Express.