Senate Bill 93 is the General Assembly’s very flawed version of a new-school financing system. Along with allowing the state to collect a 20-mill property tax and increase the sales tax by 1.75 percent (bringing the total to 7.5 percent), it would remove a school district’s ability to levy local income taxes and sales taxes. It would also designate a single statewide per student average, currently proposed at $11,535 per student. This per student amount would follow the student to a chartered public school (traditional public school district) or a chartered nonpublic school (private, religious school).

Currently, academic accountability in private schools lacks public oversight. Private school students are not required to take state assessments, the state does not issue report cards to pr

See Full Page