{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr554-114/featured_enhancing-educational-opportunities-for-all-students-act-1454546981.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr554-114/featured_large_enhancing-educational-opportunities-for-all-students-act-1454546981.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr554-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-01-27","title_override":"Should Low-Income Students get Federal Education Funding, Even if They're in a Private School?","summary_override":"

In what is being called a complete \"overhaul the Bush-era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law,\" this bill would authorize states to fund their local education agencies based on the number of eligible children enrolled in public schools and state-accredited private schools in each jurisdiction. Under current law, states allocate funds based on the number of eligible students in public schools/agencies.

The change effectively allows federal funds to follow low-income students to any school they attend throughout their academic careers , public or private

This bill would also allow families that homeschool children to pay the expenses of that education through Coverdell education savings accounts. The existing limit on contributions to Coverdell savings accounts would be removed — but the accounts would also be set up with safeguards to prevent contributions that exceed the \"qualified educational expenses\" that are actually needed to homeschool children.

Current law caps contributions to Coverdell education savings accounts at $2,000 per year. Tax-exempt qualified tuition programs — like 529 tuition programs — could be used to pay for qualified pre-kindergarten, elementary, and secondary education expenses.

","official_title":"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage the use of 529 plans and Coverdell education savings accounts, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Enhancing Educational Opportunities for all Students Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Enhancing Educational Opportunities for all Students Act\n\nAmends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow a state educational agency to allocate grant funds among local educational agencies based on the number of eligible children (children age 5 to 17 from a family with an income below the poverty level) enrolled in the public schools and the state-accredited private schools within each local agency's geographic jurisdiction.\n\nAmends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) allow payment of home school expenses from Coverdell education savings accounts; (2) remove the dollar limitation on contributions to Coverdell education savings accounts and require such accounts to provide adequate safeguards to prevent contributions from exceeding the amount necessary to provide for the qualified education expenses of the account beneficiary; and (3) allow tax-exempt qualified tuition programs (529 tuition programs) to pay qualified pre-kindergarten, elementary, and secondary educatio...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable. ","impact":"Low-income students and their families, people with Coverdell educational savings accounts or tax-exempt qualified tuition programs like 529 plans, local education agencies, and state education agencies. ","argument_for":"Families know better than the government what education option is best for their child. These funds help low-income students, and that shouldn’t change just because they’re attending a private school.","argument_against":"Federal funding should be focused on the students who need it in public schools — how else will the nation's school system be re-built? Not to mention, the added benefits this bill gives to home-schooling are not focused on low-income families. ","bill_type":"hr","published":true,"type":"FederalBill","id":"hr554-114","bill_id":"hr554-114","formal_id":"H.R. 554","chamber":"house","congress":114,"last_action_at":"2015-04-29T00:00:00.000Z","active":false,"enacted":false,"enacted_at":null,"vetoed":false,"last_vote_at":null,"debated_on":null,"congress_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/554","plain_text_url":"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114hr554ih/html/BILLS-114hr554ih.htm","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr554-114.png","congress_full_text_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/554/text","is_current_congress":false,"last_version_on":"2015-01-27","related_bill_ids":["s306-114","hr553-114","s72-114","s101-114"],"progress":"Introduced","house_passage_result":false,"senate_passage_result":false,"position_count":480,"committees":[{"name":"Committee on Education and Labor","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSED","subcommittee":false},{"name":"Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSED14","subcommittee":true},{"name":"Committee on Ways and Means","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSWM","subcommittee":false}],"links":{"rollCalls":"/api/roll_calls?bill_id=hr554-114","details":"/api/bills/hr554-114/details","sharingMessage":"/api/sharing_messages/hr554-114","positionsFor":"/api/bills/hr554-114/positions/for","positionsAgainst":"/api/bills/hr554-114/positions/against"},"upcoming":false,"cosponsors_count":5,"slug":"hr554-114-enhancing-educational-opportunities-for-all-students-act","latest_chamber_votes_id":null,"official_url":null,"target_video":true,"following":false,"vote_count":6724,"yea_vote_count":2960,"nay_vote_count":3748,"passed_house":false,"passed_senate":false,"vote_id":null,"my_position_id":null,"topic_ids":["education"],"issue_ids":["education"],"sponsor_id":150}],"votes":[],"issues":[{"id":"education","name":"Education","slug":"education","description":"Federal legislation can directly impact all levels of education and education funding. Here you can find bills related to Elementary, Junior and High School, Universities, continuing and adult education and pre-K. \r\n","page_title":"Federal legislation related to Education, encompassing K-12, Collegiate, Pre-K, and continuing - Vote on Bills, Stay informed, Hold Your Reps Accountable","icons":{"black":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/education/black_education-1429042042.svg","grey":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/education/grey_education-1429042042.svg","white":"https://assets.causes.com/issue/icon/education/white_education-1429042042.svg"},"cover_image_url":null,"is_following":false}],"users":[{"name":"Lora","vote_count":15,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/default-with-hat.png","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/default-with-hat.png","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/default-with-hat.png"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/OWl2AymJ/following","followers":"/api/users/OWl2AymJ/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":0,"is_following":null,"influence_score":10,"influence_level":10,"follower_count":0,"following_count":0,"position_count":9,"id":"OWl2AymJ","partner_id":null}],"bill_position":{"flagged":false,"id":"8f9bc0ff-9b09-4e41-89a0-3f4ce92dc348","argument_for":null,"argument_against":"We need to improve our public school system, not further dilute it's, much needed and inadequate funding. Public School means just that, public; for all, not special interest education.","show_argument_for":false,"show_argument_against":true,"upvote_count":0,"upvotes_for_count":null,"upvotes_against_count":0,"has_upvoted":false,"endorsement_count":0,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/positions/8f9bc0ff-9b09-4e41-89a0-3f4ce92dc348"},"body":"We need to improve our public school system, not further dilute it's, much needed and inadequate funding. Public School means just that, public; for all, not special interest education.","stance":"nay","created_at":"2015-04-27T22:38:00.176Z","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/positions/8f9bc0ff-9b09-4e41-89a0-3f4ce92dc348.png","note_color":null,"note_text":null,"bill_id":"hr554-114","user_id":"OWl2AymJ","endorser_ids":[]}}

Like Causes?

Lora

Should Low-Income Students get Federal Education Funding, Even if They're in a Private School?