Amended bill would boost subsidized stipends for students
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER
Sponsors have upped the ante on a bill that would provide publicly subsidized stipends for private school tuition to low-income children in neighborhoods with failing public schools.
The amount of those stipends has been increased to $9,000 for elementary school and $11,000 for middle and high school, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., (R-Westfield) said on Wednesday night.
The original version of the Opportunities Scholarship Act called for stipends of $6,000 for elementary students and $8,000 for middle and high school students. The increase is included in an amended version that will be considered by the Senate budget committee Thursday afternoon.
The bill calls for corporations to fund the stipends for up to 40,000 students over