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School choice advocacy group submits petition to circumvent Gov. Whitmer’s veto on a school choice measure

FOX News logo FOX News 8/15/2022 Joshua Nelson
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A Michigan-based school choice advocacy group fulfilled one of two petition requirements to amend state law on a tax-incentivized education scholarship program.

After the tax-incentivized education scholarship program was vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., Let MI Kids Learn’s petition last Wednesday reached over the required amount of signatures and was submitted to the Michigan Bureau of Elections to get a second chance at pushing the measure.

The petition was required to get 340,047 valid signatures and received more than 520,000. Now the signatures will be reviewed by the Bureau, and then, assuming that they are validated, they will be submitted to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. 

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers will certify the votes, and then it will go back to the Republican-led Michigan Legislature. 

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If approved by the legislature again, it will become law without Whitmer's signature, and she cannot veto it again. This process allows the tax-incentivized education scholarship program supporters to avoid another veto by Whitmer, who vetoed the measure last year. 

The tax-incentivized education scholarship program that the petition seeks to set up is called Student Opportunity Scholarship accounts [SOSA], which would give families of K-12 students access to tax-credit scholarship funds. The program would be capped at $500 million in contributions each year. 

SOSAs rely on tax credits and are intended to provide a "tax benefit for donors to invest in students rather than the bureaucratic K-12 system," the Let MI Kids Learn group's website states. 

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The funds can be used towards a student's online learning program, tutoring, extracurricular programs, textbooks, etc.

Students who live in a household with an income under 200% of the financial eligibility for free or reduced lunch, have any type of disability, under the foster care system, or have someone else in their household receiving funds through the Student Opportunity Scholarship program, are eligible for the program. 

Let MI Kids Learn’s other petition, which has not yet reached the required amount of signatures, will allow private donors who contributed to the scholarship program to qualify for a tax credit.

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The battle for Michigan's Student Opportunity Scholarships comes after Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed the most "monumental" education savings account program in the United States. 

West Virginia school choice efforts are facing hurdles after a judge shot down a scholarship program offering public money for private education, calling it unconstitutional.

School choice became a salient issue after the COVID-19-induced lockdowns sparked a conversation on the scope of the government’s authority and the type of content that should be taught to children from public school curricula. 

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