What Education Savings Accounts and ‘Pokemon Go’ have in Common

July 27, 2016 12:17PM

Last week, the Heartland Institute featured an article cleverly titled “Education Savings Accounts are the ‘Pokemon Go’ of Education Reform.” As a 30-something, non-virtual video game user who pines after the days when Mario was the jam, I approached the piece with some trepidation. It compelled me to familiarize myself with this new phenomenon and to identify its potential similarities to Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), a process I was slightly reluctant to do.

I may not have decided to stop fighting pop culture and throw my hat into the virtual chase for Pokemon, but the Heartland’s comparison of what the game accomplishes for its users and what ESAs provide to students is spot on. If parents had the choice of “backpacking” their child’s education funding to every available academic tool at our disposal, families and educators across Tennessee could experience the limitless opportunities to unlock a child’s potential.

As the Heartland Institute explains:

Similar to the way Pokémon Go provides users with an unbound variety of Pokémon to search and catch, an ESA provides parents and students access to an unbound selection of interactive, exploratory, and individualized education opportunities. How players explore the outside for their desired Pokémon is how parents and children can seek education options, or education Pokémon, in brick-and-mortar institutions, virtual classrooms, field trips to interesting and out-of-the-box sites, specialized therapies, or anywhere their imaginations and needs take them.

Read their full article HERE. To learn more about ESAs, visit us HERE and join our effort to bring this opportunity to Tennessee families in 2017.

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