Prioritizing Casinos and Marijuana Above More Education Options

As I approached the House Appropriations committee room on Friday, I noticed all the high-fives and hugs following a 12 – 9 vote to pass a bill (HB 1373, R-Taylor) that will allow the City of Petersburg to hold a referendum to permit the construction of a large casino.  Petersburg has had a history of financial woes that nearly bankrupted the city a few years ago, and according to a recent 2022 Virginia State Report, Petersburg is the least healthy locality in the state.

Contributing mightily to Petersburg’s illness is the state of its schools.  According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, Petersburg schools are some of the lowest ranked in reading and math in the commonwealth. Chronic absenteeism isn’t helping matters either.

A bill that could have healed Petersburg residents, rather than plunge them further into debt, was HB 1508 (R-Davis). This bill would have created education savings accounts (ESAs), which allow parents to use state funds appropriated for their child to pay for tuition or after-school tutoring at a private school that better meets their child’s needs. Unfortunately, because there were not enough votes to pass the bill, it had to be re-referred to another committee, where it will receive no further action.

ESAs are an innovative education alternative that many states are adopting to give families more education options to help their child.

• ESAs allow parents to have one-third of a student’s education funds directed into a personal, parent-controlled account.

• Parents are empowered to customize an education experience that meets the individual needs of their child.

• Parents can use their account to pay for tuition, tutoring, and textbooks.

• For each student participating in the ESA program, only a portion of the state’s education funds follow the student, even though the school will no longer bear the cost of instructing the student.

As frustrating as it was to watch the committee vote to prioritize a casino over ESAs, it was unconscionable that at least two House Appropriations committee members that voted to allow a Petersburg casino referendum refused to vote for HB 1508.

The Senate’s priorities haven’t been any better. Last week the Senate Finance and Appropriations committee passed a bill (SB 1133, D-Ebbin) that would commercialize high potency THC products, including recreational marijuana, and allow for a “pot shop” on every street corner. This bill would have serious consequences on our communities: increased schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, and anxiety; impaired memory and judgment; increased rates of teen suicide; and an out-of-control black market that still puts high-potency and fentanyl-laced marijuana into the hands of minors.

In that very same committee just a day earlier, the Democrat majority defeated bills (SB 892 and SB 1360) that would have brought some much-needed changes to the Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits (EISTC) program, Virginia’s only school choice program that allows tax credit-derived charitable donations to be used by families to help send their child to an alternative private school of their choice. These bills would have increased the tax credit percentage with the intent of increasing donor investment in these scholarship funds, as well as broadened eligibility by allowing families with children already at a private school to qualify.

Not only did the Senate committee defeat good bills that strengthen the existing EISTC program, but the Democrat majority also presented budget changes that would cut funding for the program to $12 million a year - at least $2 million less than this year’s tax credit usage. If this budget proposal were to be adopted, hundreds of students will be forced to leave the private school they are currently attending and reenter the very public school that couldn’t meet their academic needs.

There are too many children that have no choice but to attend an underperforming school, or a school that does not meet their education needs, because families lack the financial means to secure alternative schooling. These children are left at the mercy of the one-size-fits-all public education system with its ideological agendas and mixed academic quality.

In November, Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a fierce proponent of expanding school options in Virginia, likened these new education bills to what Brown v. Board of Education was trying to achieve. “Brown was about a parent’s ability to choose the best school for the child. And here we are, 50-something years later, and we’re still making that request.”

It is appalling that there are legislators in our General Assembly who are prioritizing casino gambling and recreational marijuana above education opportunities for our children.