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Sandoval’s ESA bill gets move to keep it alive in Nevada Legislature

The governor’s Education Savings Account bill was sent to the Senate finance committee before being discussed by the Senate education committee Tuesday, a necessary measure to keep the bill alive.

With a Friday deadline looming in the Nevada Legislature, the education committee sent the bill forward without a recommendation.

Senate Bill 506 makes changes to the program that passed in the 2015 session. The program never got off the ground because the state Supreme Court ruled the funding mechanism was unconstitutional.

Gov. Brian Sandoval included $60 million for the program in his 2017-19 budget. That is not expected to be enough to cover the nearly 8,000 parents who signed up under the 2015 bill.

The governor’s bill would move the administration of the program from the treasurer’s office to the state Department of Education in a new Office of Educational Choice that would also oversee the Opportunity Scholarship program approved in 2015.

Contact Meghin Delaney at mdelaney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281. Follow @MeghinDelaney on Twitter.

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