Whether it be morning coffee, groceries, cars or technology Americans have a vast array of choices in their everyday decisions. In economic terms, choice begets quality and accountability, because in order to attract and retain customers businesses need to offer products at a price and quality level that make customers happy.  

Why Nevada Parents Have Limited School Choice Options

When it comes to K-12 education, however, Nevada’s parents lack choice. The majority of parents enroll their children in the default public schools for their zip code, while alternatives remain scarce. Parents from more affluent backgrounds can afford private alternatives, some lucky parents may beat the odds of charter school lotteries, and some may choose to homeschool their children.

However, most Silver State parents drop off their children in the nearest public school every weekday morning. Over the years, the lack of available choices has allowed district-run public schools to dismiss the pressure to innovate or the responsibility to meet the needs of Nevada families.  

How Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) Give Families Control Over Education

In the past decade, numerous states have tried to increase choice and accountability in education, including by offering Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). ESAs are state-funded and parent-run savings accounts, that can be used for approved educational expenses. 

ESAs allow a portion of the monies that would have otherwise been directed to the public school to be administered and used by the parents to best meet the individual needs of their children. Qualified expenses usually include private school tuition, tutoring, online programs, books, special needs therapies and more.  

Nevada’s 2015 ESA Law: A Bold Step Toward School Choice

In 2015, Nevada became the first state in the nation to establish a nearly universal ESA program. Governor Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 302, establishing an ESA program that would be the first to cover virtually all existing public-school students unlike programs in other states that had been limited by household income or special education needs. 

The law dedicated 90% of the statewide average per-pupil funding into each eligible student’s ESA account, with low-income and special education families eligible for the full 100% funding. (This allocation included only the state guarantee and not any local revenues, which were substantial for public schools at that time.) By design, the program would grant Nevada parents unprecedented autonomy over their child’s education also injecting competition into the education provider landscape.  

Why Nevada’s ESA Program Was Blocked by the Courts

However, two lawsuits challenged the constitutionality of SB 302. In September 2016, the Nevada Supreme Court issued a combined opinion for the two cases. While the court ruled  the ESA program was coherent with the legislature’s constitutional duty to provide for a uniform system of common schools, it did find the funding mechanism unconstitutional. 

The court concluded that tapping into the state’s Distributive School Account, which was designed to distribute state funds to local public school districts, undermined the constitutional mandate to fund public education. Effectively, the court required ESAs to have a separate appropriation from the legislature. The court issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the ESAs from going into effect.  

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, two bills, SB 359 and SB 506, were introduced in the 2017 legislative session attempting to correct the funding mechanism. That year, both chambers of the legislature flipped from Republican control back to Democratic control. Both measures were killed, leaving the ESA program in limbo. 

In the proceeding legislative session of 2019, Senator Nicole Cannizzaro sponsored SB 551, which proposed to erase the ESA law altogether. Her bill passed both chambers on a party-line vote in a single day and sent to then-Gov. Steve Sisolak, who signed it into law. Since then, a new ESA measure has been proposed in every legislative session, but none have advanced beyond a committee assignment.  

Other States Move Forward With ESAs While Nevada Falls Behind

Although Nevada’s pioneering effort in school choice stalled, many other states have since taken up this mantle. As of 2026, 21 ESA programs are available across 18 states, serving a total of 706,877 students. Many of these programs allow near-universal eligibility, similar to Nevada’s aborted program. ESAs allow parents, especially those zoned for low-performing schools to opt out of an unsatisfactory educational environment without entirely losing state support. The program by structure also levels the playing field for children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. 

Wealthy families can already afford to enroll their children in private schools, but ESAs extend this opportunity to low- and middle-class families as well. Importantly, by injecting market forces and competition into the educational institutions, ESAs also prompt public schools to look for ways to improve and service their families better.  

Despite the common critique that ESAs divert funds from public schools, these programs increase the per-pupil funding amount for students who choose to remain in district-run schools because the difference between the ESA amount and the normal funding amount remains with school districts. In Arizona, for example, the state spends $10,315 per public school student. ESA recipients received an average award of $6,694 for non-special needs students in 2025, significantly less than what the state usually spends to send that child to a district-run school.  

Why Nevada Should Revisit Education Savings Accounts

As more and more states look to empower parents to exercise more autonomy over their children’s education, Nevada still lags. If the Silver State wants to improve educational outcomes, legislators should focus on improving quality through competition and accountability to the ultimate consumers—Nevada families.  

Nevada pioneered the approach. It’s time we benefit from it. 

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