Summary
Representative Douglas House has introduced House Bill 1552 to create the Succeed Scholarship Program that would permit students with disabilities attending public schools to transfer to an approved private school of their parent’s choosing with the support of the student’s full foundation funding to cover school tuition and fees. Policy makers are interested in the effect that this private school choice program likely would have on overall state finances as well as the fiscal health of affected public schools. Drawing upon the state education funding formulas as well as the provisions in the bill, we are able to determine that the effect of the program on the state budget is likely to be positive after the initial startup year. The program’s effect on the fiscal condition of individual districts is forecast to be positive in the overwhelming majority of cases and very small, as the modest number of students that are expected to utilize the Succeed Scholarship Program are likely to be spread out across the 230 school districts of Arkansas.