SB 44: Combining Carson Smith and Opportunity Scholarship

This bill passed the House 64-7 and passed the Senate 20-8. Review our tracker for more information.

Combining the Carson Smith Scholarship and the Special Needs Opportunity Scholarship is a great idea.

Senate Bill 44 from Senator Lincoln Fillmore combines both of these programs into the Carson Smith Opportunity Scholarship. 

By combining these two programs the legislature is giving families more freedom in their children’s education. The Carson Smith program is what is known as a voucher program. This can only be used to pay for private school tuition.

But the special needs opportunity scholarship allows families to seek a variety of education choices including homeschools and microschools. Parents can also unbundle their education, meaning that they can pick and choose classes from a variety of schools or private providers for their children’s education. That means they can take a math class from a tutor, take private piano lessons for music, find a speech pathologist for their speech needs, and join a microschool for their language arts and history classes. 

Combining these programs allows families a greater amount of freedom in how they educate their children.