Friend,

We are already seeing the consequences of the U.S Supreme Court’s appalling Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue ruling – and they are exactly as we feared.

The Trump/DeVos administration has revealed a new plan to add a federal private school voucher scheme into the government’s next coronavirus relief package, which the U.S. Senate will soon be considering.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the Senate to reject private school voucher programs and use public funds for public schools, where they belong.

Emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue ruling, which held that state voucher programs that fund secular private schools now must also fund religious private schools, the administration is renewing the push for a new federally funded voucher program.

If it is passed into law, this proposal could pour billions of taxpayer dollars into non-public education – including to private religious schools, many of which impose religious litmus tests on students and their families, deny admission to LGBTQ students, teach anti-LGBTQ curriculums, and even promote conversion therapy for LGBTQ students.

Despite false assertions from Trump and DeVos that vouchers promote civil rights, it is clear that vouchers actually undermine students’ civil rights by lacking sufficient protections for students and teachers, including protections against discrimination based on religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.

Additionally, in some states, voucher programs have led to increases in school segregation. This is no surprise considering private school voucher programs were first created to avoid the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education order to end school segregation.

Please click here to tell the Senate that public funds must go to public schools. It is urgent that they hear from as many constituents as possible.

As the country looks to Congress for coronavirus relief, the last thing it should be doing is exploiting a pandemic to divert funds away from under-resourced public schools, which educate 90% of our country’s students, to private religious schools.

This is a quickly developing situation, with the potential to further corrupt the foundational principles of our religious freedom that you and I are committed to defending. Please don’t hesitate to make your voice heard today.

Thanks for all you do,

Maggie Garrett
VP of Public Policy