MENS,& NOTES _ New Website Offers Tool For Comparing School Choice Programs (NAPSA)—When it comes to education, an increasing number of communities are embracing school choice. In fact, the trend is gaining speed. Since last year, the number of states offering private school choice programsto families grew from 24 to 28, and the number of programs in the U.S. rose from 51 to 58. Perhaps most notably, this year, the state of Nevada has created the most expansive educational choice program in the country. It is an education savings account (ESA) program that is open to all its public school children. ESAs allow parents to withdraw their children from public, district or charter schools and get a deposit of public education funds into government authorized saving accounts. These accounts have restricted but multiple uses. The funds can cover private school tuition and fees, online learning programs, private tutoring, com- munity college costs and other higher education expenses. ESAs are just one of several ways school choice can be provided. Other municipalities use systems that include vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and individual tax credits and deductions for approved educational expenses such as private school tuition, books, supplies, computers, tutors and transportation. Because of the number and variety of programsoffered nationwide, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an organization that advocates for education reform through universal school choice, has created a Web tool to aggregate and simplify the data. Thelatest facts and figures on school choice programs can be found online by using the new School Choicein America Dashboard. That newtool is called the School Choice in America Dashboard. The Dashboard makes information about various programs eas- ily accessible and allows users to compare and contrast states’ and individual school choice programs. It includes an interactive map that lets people compareall the private school choice programs in the U.S. based on state, student eligibility, average funding, par- ticipation, and type of program. The Dashboard automatically provides the most recent individual program data available and the tool makes the data not only filterable, but downloadable and exportable. The School Choice in America Dashboardis available to everyone and can serve as a guide to anyone interested in school choice trends and opportunities. To learn more about private school choice programs across America, visit the School Choice in America Dashboard at www.edchoice.org.
