Leslie Hiner

Leslie Hiner serves as Vice President of Legal Policy for EdChoice and leads the Legal Defense & Education Center. She is also a member of the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network and is a Heartland Institute policy advisor.

BRIEF: School Choice in the States – July 2021

LEGISLATION Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed into law HB 349 and SB 86  containing Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, a tax credit-funded education savings account or “tax-credit ESA” program. Joining Kentucky, this is the second program of its kind throughout the nation and is Missouri’s first educational choice program.  The Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program currently has a cap […]

BRIEF: School Choice in the States – October 2020

LEGISLATION Washington, D.C. Congress received and the city’s council enacted Washington, D.C.’s 2021 budget request act, which includes a $40 million request for the federal program that operates the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. LITIGATION Maine On October 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled against parents in Maine who wish to […]

What the Espinoza Ruling Means for Blaine Amendments and School Choice

EdChoice is celebrating a landmark VICTORY for families and children! Discriminatory Blaine Amendments found in state constitutions can no longer be used to prohibit families participating in school choice programs from accessing religiously affiliated private schools for their children, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Dept of Revenue. Chief Justice […]

BRIEF: School Choice in the States – June 2020

LEGISLATION   Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7067, a bill that significantly expands the state’s Family Empowerment Scholarship program. The bill expands income-eligibility from 185 percent of the federal poverty line ($47,638 for a family of four in 2019–20) to 300 percent of the federal poverty line ($77,250 for a family of four in 2019–20). Students from […]