There’s new movement on school vouchers – but this time, it’s coming from the House, not the Senate.  Republican Jim Christiana has distributed a co-sponsorship memo for legislation creating a more targeted version of Senate Bill 1, which, until now, has been the only vouchers bill in front of the General Assembly.

To recap, Senate Bill 1, initially introduced by Republican Jeff Piccola and Democrat Anthony Williams,  has been in a holding pattern for several months now. It likely won’t see a Senate vote until the fall. The measure creates a vouchers program that gradually expands over four years: in year one, poor students in failing schools are eligible. Year two expands vouchers to poor students in districts with failing schools, and in the third year, all low-income students in the commonwealth are eligible for the vouchers. The amended language makes middle class families eligible for vouchers in the fourth year of the program.

House Republican leaders have been resistant to the program. Last month, Speaker Sam Smith said he’d oppose the measure, in its current form, if it made it to his chamber.

Christiana’s proposal is more limited than the Piccola/Williams bill: it would apply to low-income students in under-performing schools. As the memo explains, “This Act will create a school voucher that will commence with the 2012-13 school year and will be available to low-income children who (1) attended a low achieving school during the 2011-12 school year or will enroll in kindergarten in a low achieving for the 2012-13 school year; and (2) will reside within the attendance boundary of a low achieving school as of the first day of class.  A low achieving school district will be defined as the lowest performing 10% of school districts.

Here’s the full memo: