"Not a Choice for Everyone" —
The False Narrative of Vouchers

Arizona, the Cautionary Tale Against Vouchers: Arizona was featured in another in-depth article from the investigative journalists at ProPublica, which caught major national attention this week. We're excerpting some highlights below; we hope you’ll read the whole article here.

Not benefitting low income families: Advocates for vouchers have long argued their plan is a way for all children, no matter their socioeconomic background, to have access to a high-quality education. “But now that conservative think tanks have successfully pushed for universal vouchers in several states, these programs are disproportionately being used by middle- and upper-income parents.”

As a ProPublica analysis shows, in Maricopa County, “the poorer the ZIP code, the less often vouchers are being used. The richer, the more.” In one West Phoenix ZIP code where the median household income is $46,700 a year, for example, only a single voucher is being used per 100 school-age children. Conversely, in a Paradise Valley ZIP code with a median household income of $173,000, there are an estimated 28 vouchers being used per 100 school-age children.

The low-income parents interviewed said that they knew plenty about ESA vouchers, but “they had come to understand that the program was not designed for them.” Logistical obstacles would make vouchers practically impossible for them and their children: 

• Geography: The high-quality private schools are not built near low-income neighborhoods. This also means a transportation challenge. After all, while public schools generally provide free transportation via school buses, private schools rarely do. 

  Tuition: A voucher might not even cover the full price of a private school. A typical ESA voucher is worth between $7,000 and $8,000 a year, while private schools in the Phoenix area often charge more than $10,000 annually in tuition and fees, ProPublica found. The price tag at Phoenix Country Day School ranges from $30,000 to $35,000. (The Hechinger Report has also found that private schools often raise their tuition when parents have vouchers.)

  Food: Breakfast and lunch are provided by public schools to students from lower-income families, but at private schools, parents typically have to pay for them.

  Uniforms: Clothing with the private school’s logo typically runs hundreds of dollars more.

  Donations: Plus there is pressure to spend money at auctions, raffles and other fundraisers. (It’s Christian to do so, many religious private school websites say.)

  Inequities. One low-income mom worried that her girls, if not equipped with the latest cellphone, laptop and other indicators of wealth, would feel left out or be bullied. Another wondered if she would be received in the same way at a private school as she is as a public school parent leader. 

“Just because you gave me a 50%-off coupon at Saks Fifth Avenue doesn’t mean I can afford to shop at Saks Fifth Avenue.” 

— Curt Cardine, a longtime educator and now a fellow at the Grand Canyon Institute

The question remains whether quality for-profit private schools will have any reason to build new locations in South or West Phoenix, where most parents can’t pay tuition beyond their $7,000 voucher. So far, in these areas of the city, the free market has mostly just provided strip-mall, storefront private schools as well as what are called microschools, with little on their websites that working parents can use to judge their curricula, quality or cost. (Private schools in Arizona aren’t obligated to make public any information about their performance.) These schools might not be accredited. Their teachers might not be certified. They might close soon. They are certainly not the large, established, elite private schools of the American imagination.

Step up to help flip the legislature to one that supports public schools and will rein in this off-the-rails voucher program!

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