S1872

TRENTON – Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, the sponsor of S-1872, legislation known as the “Opportunity Scholarships Act,” which would establish a pilot program to encourage private corporations to fund scholarships for low-income students in chronically failing public schools to transfer to private school, issued the following remarks before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved the bill today by a vote of 8-5:

“The intent of the Opportunity Scholarship Act is to give children from low-income families, who are forced to attend a chronically-failing school simply because of their zip code, an opportunity to get a quality education. But the Opportunity Scholarship Act will also save tax dollars—a huge amount of tax dollars. If it were in place ten years ago, the Opportunity Scholarship Act would have prevented most of the private school closings that now cost our taxpayers $600-800 million a year.

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senator Raymond Lesniak which would establish a pilot program to encourage private corporations to fund scholarships for low-income students in chronically failing public schools was approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee today by a vote of 6-0.

“We cannot continue to turn our backs on students who are wasting their potential in schools which, year after year, continue to fail their students,” said Senator Lesniak, D-Union. “Through this bill, we can give students the opportunity to receive the quality education they deserve. We can give students and their families a measure of choice and control, rather than force kids into failing schools simply because of their home address and their economic status.”