JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Mike Parson signed House bill 349 and Senate bill 86 into law Tuesday to create a school choice funding mechanism, the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Account, or ESA, reported. ESA scholarships can be used to pay for private school tuition. In addition, the scholarships could be used to cover homeschooling expenses, purchasing textbooks and education-related technology, tutoring and educational therapy costs, and tuition to public charter schools or to district schools outside of a student’s assigned school district. The new program serves parents of students with Individualized Education Plans or household incomes of up to 200% of the free and reduced-lunch eligibility rate who live in Jackson, St, Louis, St. Charles or Jefferson counties, or in a city with a population over 30,000, such as St. Joseph. They could receive an ESA scholarship of up to $6,375 for K-12 educational needs. The first scholarships are expected to be available for the 2022-23 school…