Senate budget includes debit card program for school costs

Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina pays millions of dollars each year so students from low-income families and children with disabilities can attend private schools, but a provision tucked into the Senate budget would go beyond tuition vouchers to provide debit cards to parents to pay for school costs.

The Personal Educational Savings Account, or PESA, is geared toward students with disabilities. Their parents would get a prepaid debit card with up to $9,000 a year on it, and they could use the tax-free money to pay for everything from tuition and books to tutoring and school transportation costs.

Leanne Winner, director of governmental relations for the North Carolina School Boards Association, complained that there's been no public examination of the plan because the Senate rolled out its budget bill late Tuesday and is expected to give it final approval early Friday.

Winner described the plan as a "voucher program on steroids" and said that other states with similar programs have had problems with debit card accountability.

"In Arizona, we have seen parents buy big-screen TVs. There was one who was investigated for using the money to pay for an abortion," she said.

Read more: http://www.wral.com/senate-budget-includes-debit-card-program-for-school-costs/16696751/