GILBERT, Ariz. – One Arizona school leader thinks a district-created school voucher program might be the solution to her district’s money woes.

AZCentral.com reports that Staci Burk, board president for Gilbert Public Schools, recently traveled to Colorado to meet with members of the Douglas County school board, who have been trying to establish a district-level voucher program since 2011.

The Douglas County plan, which is on hold as it works its way through the courts, would provide vouchers for up to 500 students who wish to leave the district for the private school of their choice.

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Gilbert board president Burk is intrigued by the Colorado district’s plan because it would give parents 75 percent of their student’s per-pupil state funding in the form of a voucher, while the remaining 25 percent would stay with the district.

Douglas County board members estimate their plan would generate half a million dollars for the district.

Burk says that if Gilbert Public Schools offered a similar plan, the district could receive $400,000 extra dollars with which to increase teachers’ salaries and pay for student programs, reports AZCentral.com.

Burk’s motives for a voucher plan might seem a little off-putting to some observers, but the overall outcome would be great for Gilbert-area families. It would allow a number of low- and middle-income parents who normally couldn’t afford private school tuition to finally have access to the schools of their choice.

The Gilbert school board plans to study the issue this spring, and could have a voucher plan in place for the 2014-15 school year, the news site reports.

Of course, there’ll be lots of opposition from the local teachers union and the rest of the state’s Education Establishment.

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An attorney with the Arizona School Boards Association told AZCentral.com that any district-level voucher plan would violate the state Constitution, and left the door open to taking legal action against the district if Gilbert officials move forward with it.

Burk hasn’t ignored the legal questions surrounding the possible plan, and firmly believes it would pass constitutional muster, as a district voucher plan would be very similar to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account. That program gives state funds to parents of special needs students for use in a variety of ways, including for tuition at a private school.

“It would be an (Empowerment Scholarship Account),” Burk told the news site. “The difference is the state is doing it under the state budget. This would be shifting that to the local level where the governing board could essentially implement the empowerment account.”

If Gilbert officials pursue the plan – and if it survives its legal challenges – it would be the first of its kind in the state, AZCentral.com notes.