Strengthen Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts

Missouri's Empowerment Scholarship Account program is among the most important educational tools available to families in the state. By allowing public education funding to follow the child rather than flow automatically to an assigned institution, ESAs recognize a fundamental truth: parents, not the government, bear primary responsibility for the education of their children. This principle is not merely political preference; it is grounded in the natural order of the family and affirmed throughout Scripture.

HB3022 modifies the existing ESA framework in ways that strengthen the program's reach and utility. Whether through expanded eligibility, improved funding structures, or reduced administrative burden, such modifications matter enormously to families who have chosen faith-based or other private educational settings. For these families, access to scholarship accounts is often the difference between a viable choice and a theoretical one.

A consistent concern with government-administered scholarship programs is the accumulation of regulatory requirements that, over time, erode the independence of participating schools and families. The American Council urges that any modifications in this bill preserve the structural simplicity that makes ESAs effective. Bureaucratic complexity is not a neutral inconvenience; it disproportionately burdens working families with fewer resources to navigate it.

Faith communities across Missouri have invested generations in building schools that reflect a coherent, God-centered vision of human formation. These institutions deserve a funding environment that respects their mission and independence. Programs like Missouri's ESA are one of the clearest ways the state can honor the diversity of educational conviction among its citizens without coercing conformity to a single model.

The American Council supports HB3022 and encourages Missouri legislators to advance it with the goal of maximizing family access while protecting the institutional integrity of participating schools. Education reform that is serious about parental rights must be backed by funding mechanisms that make choice real, and this bill moves in that direction.