January 7, 2016
Carson City, NV – Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt issued the following statement after filing a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the Treasurer regarding Nevada’s Education Savings Accounts (ESA) program. The lawsuit was filed just before Christmas by Lieutenant Governor Hutchison in his capacity as a private lawyer.
“The lawsuit brought by the Hutchison firm endangers the State's ongoing defense of the Education Savings Account program, intended to benefit Nevada’s schoolchildren and parents,” said Laxalt. “My office believes that the suit does nothing but distract and divide the State’s efforts to defend the program from the two real challenges to the ESA program which lawyers in my office have been working non-stop to brief, argue and defend. Just as I have requested in a private conversation with Mark Hutchison, I am now publicly asking that his firm voluntarily and immediately withdraw this lawsuit. In the meantime, I will continue to dedicate all necessary resources toward defending the program and to defeating any lawsuit like this one that could delay its implementation. Thousands of Nevada’s families are counting on the program to be realized and the Attorney General's office will continue its fight to make that a reality.”
Nevada’s new ESA law allows parents the freedom to choose how to best meet the educational needs of their children by giving them the option, in lieu of attending public school, to create an account with funds that may be used for a variety of educational purposes, including private schooling, tutoring, test taking, textbooks or online learning.
The motion to dismiss is attached.
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