Loan approved to jump start voucher program

The Board of Examiners Tuesday approved a $247,500 loan to the Treasurer’s Office to fund startup costs for the so-called Education Savings Account Program — essentially school vouchers.Chief of Staff Grant Hewitt said the program is hugely popular with more than 1,000 applications from parents in little more than a week since they opened the doors to parents.The program outlined in SB302 would allow parents to take a roughly $5,000 a year share of state money and feed it to private schools