Friend,

In honor of Public Schools Week, I am asking you to please send a message urging your legislators to support public schools and oppose private school vouchers!

Americans United has been fighting for public schools and against public funding of private religious education since our founding. That’s because every child deserves to feel welcome and included in school, no matter what religion, if any, they practice. Public schools are required by the Constitution to respect the religious freedom of students, parents and educators.

But President Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has made it her mission to divert public dollars to private, mostly religious schools through voucher schemes. That leaves our public schools – already low on resources – with even less money to educate the 90 percent of schoolchildren who rely on public education.

For Public Schools Week, please send a message to your legislators to urge them to protect public schools by opposing private school voucher schemes.

Every child should be able to attend a school that will allow them to learn free from religious coercion. Our tax dollars shouldn’t fund private schools that:

• Undermine religious freedom
• Deprive students of rights and protections
• Lack accountability
• Fail to improve student achievement

And taxpayers should not be forced to fund religious education.

Click here to urge your legislators to support public schools today.

Thanks for making sure our voices are heard and our schoolchildren are protected.

With hope and determination,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

P.S. I, like so many others, am forever indebted to my public school education.
Check out my second-grade class photo below (I'm third from the left)!