[ As momentum builds around efforts to divert public funds to
private schools, lawmakers and advocates should recommit to opposing
harmful voucher bills and supporting greater investment in public
education. ]
[[link removed]]

SCHOOL VOUCHER BILLS SEEK TO DEFUND AND PRIVATIZE PUBLIC SCHOOLS  
[[link removed]]


 

Nina Mast
April 20, 2023
Economic Policy Institute
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ As momentum builds around efforts to divert public funds to private
schools, lawmakers and advocates should recommit to opposing harmful
voucher bills and supporting greater investment in public education. _


,

 

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held
a congressional hearing
[[link removed]] on
voucher expansion featuring three voucher advocates and one opponent.
The hearing comes amid an intense, coordinated push this year by
anti-public school advocates who have long sought to privatize public
education, in part through state-level efforts to enact private school
voucher programs in state legislatures across the country.

School vouchers—which include traditional private school subsidies,
Education Savings Accounts, and private school tuition tax
credits—are diversions of public funds to private and religious
schools. Efforts to implement and expand voucher programs in states
across the country are key to the relentless and enduring campaign to
defund and then privatize public education, a movement that also
includes manufacturing mistrust in public schools and targeting
educators and their unions.

TYPES OF VOUCHERS:

* Traditional vouchers: The government writes a check to subsidize
tuition at private schools using funding collected through taxes.
* Education Savings Account (ESA) vouchers: Instead of paying
private schools directly, public funds are deposited into savings
accounts that families can use to pay for private schools.
* Tax credit vouchers: Individuals or businesses receive a tax
credit in exchange for “donations” to organizations that provide
vouchers for private school tuition. As a result, government tax
revenue is rerouted to private organizations.

Despite overwhelming evidence of the harms of voucher programs and the
unpopularity of attacks on public education, right-wing anti-education
privatization advocates have prioritized the creation or expansion of
school voucher programs as a policy goal this year in statehouses
across the country. As of March 2023, public education advocates are
tracking voucher bills in at least 24
[[link removed]] states.
As of mid-April, universal voucher bills—which will allow all
families, regardless of income, to use public funds to pay for private
education—have passed in four states: Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, and
Florida. Meanwhile, voucher expansion bills have failed in at least
six states so far in 2023: Georgia, Texas
[[link removed]], Idaho
[[link removed]], Virginia
[[link removed]], Kentucky
[[link removed]],
and South Dakota
[[link removed]].

Given the renewed push for state school voucher legislation and the
certainty of continued attacks on public education, policymakers and
advocates must renew their efforts to oppose vouchers in every form
and fulfill states’ constitutional mandate of universal,
high-quality public education.

Public education advocates have been tirelessly fighting against
harmful voucher bills in states across the country

For years, state groups affiliated with EPI’s nationwide Economic
Analysis and Research Network (EARN), alongside teachers’ unions and
other public education advocates, have been sounding the alarm about
the threat of vouchers to public education. Though school voucher
bills have already passed in four states in 2023, it’s not too late
for other states and future lawmakers to learn from the work of public
school advocates and choose a different path. Below, we identify five
EARN groups among those that have been particularly engaged in
prolonged fights against voucher expansion in their states and can
serve as guides for assessing vouchers’ impacts and opposing
state-level attacks on public education:

ARIZONA CENTER FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS (AZCEP): AZCEP has conducted
significant analysis of voucher programs in response to relentless
attacks on public education in Arizona, particularly in 2022, during
which four voucher expansion bills were under consideration. Recent
AZCEP resources include a four-part series on the history
[[link removed]] of
vouchers in the state, an analysis
[[link removed]] of
the fiscal impacts of vouchers on public schools, a fact sheet
[[link removed]] on
the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding vouchers,
and evidence
[[link removed]] that
vouchers are creating unequal opportunities for most students. AZCEP
also joined teachers, parents, and other public school advocates in a
statewide campaign
[[link removed]] to block
the voucher expansion bill passed in 2022. Unfortunately, well-funded
[[link removed]] attacks on public education prevailed,
and the state now stands to lose up to $1 billion per year for public
schools.

GEORGIA BUDGET AND POLICY INSTITUTE (GBPI): Over the past decade, GBPI
has produced research and analysis in response to numerous attempts
[[link removed]] to expand voucher
programs in Georgia. Most recently, GBPI provided
[[link removed]] analysis that helped defeat SB 233,
a voucher bill that threatened to funnel millions of dollars away from
public schools. The bill garnered opposition
[[link removed]] from
rural Republicans, who know their constituents stand to lose the most
from the diversion of public school funds to private schools. GBPI
also analyzed
[[link removed]] data
from Georgia’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit to show that
the program drains public funding from rural counties and
redistributes it to a few wealthier counties. On TikTok, GBPI’s
resident vouchers expert Stephen Owens explained
[[link removed]] how
tax credit vouchers are overwhelmingly claimed by wealthy families and
serve as tax shelters for businesses.

FLORIDA POLICY INSTITUTE (FPI): FPI has written numerous reports on
the fiscal impacts of voucher expansion proposals in Florida. A 2023
FPI analysis
[[link removed]] found
that HB 1, which passed the state’s Republican-controlled
legislature and was signed into law, will cost the state $4 billion in
its first year alone. According to FPI research
[[link removed]],
existing voucher programs in the state are already siphoning public
school funds to subsidize private school tuition to the tune of over
$1 billion during the 2022–2023 school year.

COMMON GOOD IOWA (CGI): CGI has been vocal in its opposition to
voucher expansion bills in Iowa over the past three years: These bills
represent a “radical giveaway to wealthy families already in private
schools.” In 2023, CGI published research
[[link removed]] showing
that the state’s planned voucher expansion would cost the state $340
million and lead to losses of $7,600 per student—losses that will be
felt most by low-income students and students in rural counties. CGI
also created an in-depth explainer
[[link removed]] on
how wealthy Iowans use private school tuition tax credits as a
profitable tax avoidance scheme—paid for by everyone else. With the
help of recently-expanded
[[link removed]] Republican
control of the state legislature and a voucher-obsessed
[[link removed]] Republican
governor, Iowa’s voucher expansion bill passed this year and was
signed into law.

EVERY TEXAN: In Texas, Every Texan has been sounding the alarm about
the harm of school vouchers for a decade
[[link removed]].
In 2017, Every Texan published a research brief
[[link removed]] finding
that the state’s voucher program would cost public schools over $2
billion and showing how vouchers predominantly benefit wealthy
families. Every Texan reminds us
[[link removed]] that
vouchers are a legacy of white supremacy, unpopular, anti-democratic,
and “just bad policy.” Though Texas Governor Greg Abbott has
identified voucher expansion as his signature proposal for the 2023
legislative session, a bipartisan group of legislators
(including rural Republicans
[[link removed]])
have effectively blocked the bill by passing a budget amendment that
prohibits the use of public funds for private schools.

Vouchers are a failed, unpopular policy driven by larger efforts to
destroy public education

There is substantial and growing evidence that voucher programs do not
serve students and may deepen educational and economic inequality.
Voucher programs and the broader education privatization movement of
which they are a part are also deeply unpopular. Instead, education
privatization is a project
[[link removed]] by
deep-pocketed right-wing funders and think tanks committed to
dismantling our public institutions and collective power and
implementing a policy regime of social control in service of the
wealthy and corporations.

Ineffective, inefficient, and inequitable: Research on state and local
experience shows vouchers are a failed public policy

* VOUCHERS DO NOT IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AND LIKELY WORSEN
THEM. There is an extensive
[[link removed]] body
[[link removed]] of research
[[link removed]] finding
that voucher programs do not improve student achievement. Recent
studies in four states all showed
[[link removed]] that
students who used vouchers experienced _worse_ academic outcomes
than their peers, and a study of voucher programs in Milwaukee found
that voucher students performed better
[[link removed]] after
transferring from private to public schools.
* VOUCHERS REPRESENT A REDISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC FUNDING TO PRIVATE
ENTITIES THAT LEADS TO FEWER FUNDS AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC GOODS.
An analysis
[[link removed]] of
voucher programs in seven states found an unmistakable trend of
decreased funding for public schools as a result of voucher expansion.
Given the causal
[[link removed]] relationship
between school funding and student achievement, denying public schools
the funds necessary to educate students directly harms student
outcomes.
* VOUCHERS BENEFIT THE WEALTHY AT THE EXPENSE OF LOW-INCOME AND
RURAL COMMUNITIES. Vouchers mostly fund
[[link removed]] students
who are already attending private school, and wealthy families
are overwhelmingly
[[link removed]] the
recipients of school voucher tax credits—they can even use tax
shelters to profit from “donations” to voucher organizations.
Further, since vouchers typically do not cover the full cost of
private school, low-income families are still unable to afford private
school education—even with a voucher—and few rural students have
access to private schools. Since many private schools do not provide
[[link removed]] transportation, low-income
students in both urban and rural areas lack affordable and accessible
transportation to and from school.
* VOUCHERS ARE ROOTED IN RACISM AND FUND RACIAL, ABLEIST,
ANTI-LGBTQ, AND RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION. Voucher expansion and the
broad school privatization movement were born out of
[[link removed]] racist
opposition to school desegregation in the mid 20th Additionally,
voucher programs divert public funds to private schools that are
more racially-segregated
[[link removed]] than
public schools and discriminate against students based on
their sexual orientation and gender identity
[[link removed]], ability
[[link removed]],
and religion
[[link removed]].
Most states do not provide nondiscrimination protections for students
who attend private schools.
* UNLIKE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAMS LACK
ACCOUNTABILITY AND OVERSIGHT. A 2020 study
[[link removed]] found
that only about half of states with voucher programs require teachers
to have bachelor’s degrees; even fewer states require that teachers
are licensed, and fewer still require participating private schools to
report graduation rates. Since many states do not collect data on
students who use vouchers and do not require reporting on how funds
are used, it is difficult to evaluate the impacts of vouchers on
student achievement, and there are many examples
[[link removed]] of
fraud and abuse of public funds diverted to vouchers.

Vouchers are unpopular, and the movement to expand them is
anti-democratic

Across the country, voters and parents overwhelmingly support
[[link removed]] improving
public education and oppose vouchers and “neo-vouchers” like ESAs
and tax credits for private schools. Anti-public education advocates
tacitly recognize this reality. Their current political strategy, as
they have articulated
[[link removed]] it,
is to focus only on states with Republican-controlled legislatures.
The fact that voucher bills that failed miserably in past years have
found adequate support more recently is not a coincidence.

Republican governors have sought to change the composition of their
state legislatures by electing anti-public education advocates to
office and defeating candidates who oppose voucher expansion. Such was
the case in Iowa, whose state legislature narrowly enacted an
expansive voucher bill this legislative session after similar bills
failed the previous two years. Last year’s bill was blocked by rural
Republicans who knew their constituents would be harmed by the
diversion of public school funds to private schools; in response, Gov.
Reynolds endorsed
[[link removed]] primary
challengers to replace them and increase the GOP’s House majority
enough to pass the bill this session. The same strategy is
being deployed
[[link removed]] in
Texas, where the pro-voucher governor is aligned with wealthy donors
committed to unseating Republicans who oppose his agenda.

Vouchers are embedded in a larger movement to dismantle public
education that is out of step with parents and voters

Instead of touting the supposed effectiveness or efficiency gains of
voucher expansion, advocates have shifted their focus to values-based
arguments, like those around school curricula
[[link removed]] and parental
consent
[[link removed]].
These advocates now frame
[[link removed]] voucher
expansion as a “path to halt woke indoctrination” and “escape
government-run education.” Heritage Foundation-backed Lindsey Burke,
who testified at Tuesday’s hearing in support of school voucher
expansion, has explicitly argued
[[link removed]] in
support of eliminating the Department of Education. Denisha Allen of
the Betsy DeVos
[[link removed]]-founded
American Federation for Children, who also testified in support of
vouchers, sees
[[link removed]] the
“war against the teachers’ union and the school choice movement”
as inextricably intertwined and has called
[[link removed]] teachers’
unions “cartels” that are “taking students hostage for
ransom.”

Yet these extreme views are not widely held. Most parents are
concerned about teacher shortages
[[link removed]], a lack of
respect for teachers, and inadequate funding for public schools. Large
majorities of parents and voters do not believe that public schools
are going too far to promote a “woke” political agenda.
Nonetheless, disingenuous efforts to sow division between parents and
teachers have afforded voucher advocates some relevance in the current
political moment, buoyed by their alignment with the broader
right-wing propaganda machine.

The most vocal institutional backers of voucher expansion are
well-funded right-wing groups like the Koch-founded dark money
group Americans for Prosperity
[[link removed]],
the Bradley Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation. The Bradley
Foundation has contributed tens of millions of dollars to school
voucher advocates
[[link removed]], efforts to
defund
[[link removed]] teachers’
unions and unions generally, and groups
[[link removed]] that
promote baseless claims about widespread “voter fraud.” The
Heritage Foundation, a prominent right-wing think tank and long-time
recipient of Bradley Foundation funding, has publicly parroted Donald
Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud, and in 2021, the
organization’s dark money arm spent more than $5 million
[[link removed]] on
lobbying for a far-right agenda that included aggressive voter
suppression tactics in Republican-controlled states.

Voucher expansion is merely one prong in the right-wing agenda to
weaken and eventually destroy public institutions
[[link removed]], public
services
[[link removed]],
and public power
[[link removed]].
In the absence of genuine public support for vouchers, voucher
advocates are attempting—with some recent success—to manufacture
support by buying political favor and stifling the democratic process.
As privatization advocates ramp up their efforts in state legislatures
across the country, lawmakers, researchers, and advocates for racial
and economic justice must recognize the importance of opposing these
assaults and supporting collective investments in our schools and
communities.

_Nina Mast is an economic analyst for the Economic Analysis and
Research Network (EARN) at EPI. Mast is a recent graduate of the
Master of Public Policy program at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School,
where she served as a researcher for the UC Berkeley Labor Center and
represented academic student employees as a union steward with
UAW-2865._

* public schools
[[link removed]]
* school vouchers
[[link removed]]
* School privatization
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]