We have always maintained that the success of Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) plan, and then of his Education Freedom Act scholarship program, will not be measured accurately until several years of results are under their belts.
Per state law, the ESA pilot program was to be evaluated by the Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability following its third year and every year thereafter, and to provide recommendations to the General Assembly.
That three-year evaluation has now been done, and we have to admit that the results taken generally — from the involved counties, Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby — are not positive. While the ESA students’ TCAP scores have improved over time, they generally remain lower than their peers in their local public schools and lower than statewide averages.
(IN THE NEWS: In Hamilton County, public school students outperform tuition grant recipients)
The hope of any state that wants to see improvement for students in its most struggling schools is that the students, if given the opportunity to attend a private or parochial school, would improve their grades and find more success.