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January 29, 2026

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Action Alert: Stop the Federal Voucher Tax Credit Scheme

Last summer, Congress passed a nationwide school voucher scheme buried
inside the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1). This program would redirect
federal tax dollars to private schools and leave public schools across the
country with fewer resources and deeper budget cuts.

Governors now hold the power to opt their states into this pipeline, even
though most families have never heard a word about it.

In North Carolina, state lawmakers sidestepped the bill’s opt-in
requirement by passing House Bill 87([7]Educational Choice for Children
Act), which required the state to adopt the federal voucher program.
Governor Stein vetoed it. In his veto message, he said he would wait to
make a final decision until the guidance for the program is released.

If governors opt in, private schools and religious institutions will
receive public resources without having to follow civil rights protections
that every public school must honor. Students with disabilities, LGBTQ+
students, multilingual learners, and students of color already face
discrimination and exclusion under state-level voucher programs. Federal
vouchers will only increase that harm, causing public schools to face even
deeper cuts.

The federal voucher program allows families wealthy enough to donate to
private schools to claim dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits that drain
the federal revenue pool for education and other essential services.
Families would be able to stack these funds on top of existing state
voucher programs, creating a massive diversion of dollars away from public
schools that destabilizes districts, eliminates services, and accelerates
school closures. States like Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas, Indiana, and
others that have tax credit voucher programs already know how devastating
these programs become when the door is opened just a crack.

No governor should gamble with their state’s public schools. New Mexico and
Oregon have already opted out, and many other states have not committed.
But without public pressure, more governors may join the states preparing
to opt into this federal voucher scheme.

We all need to urge Governor Stein to reject the federal voucher program
before it drains our state’s public schools of critical resources even more
than our current voucher programs are draining them.

The federal government should never be allowed to bankroll discrimination,
weaken civil rights protections, and siphon public funds into private
hands. Families deserve better than a two-tiered school system that rewards
privilege and denies opportunity.

In the coming weeks, governors will make their decisions, and the public
has very little time to intervene. This is exactly why the voucher lobby is
pushing so hard: if they can get governors to quietly opt in before
communities mobilize, they will have locked in a nationwide voucher
pipeline for years. We cannot let that happen.

No governor should volunteer their state to participate in a program that
destabilizes public schools and gives private institutions a blank check.
If they do, billions of tax dollars will flow into private institutions
that face little oversight and serve only a fraction of students.

This is the moment to make it clear that families, educators, and voters
will not tolerate a federal voucher takeover of our public schools.

Together, we can stop this federal voucher pipeline before it causes more
harm to North Carolina’s children.

Contact Governor Stein and urge him to reject the federal voucher program!

[8]Send an Email to Governor Stein!

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), just released a new report
finding that the Trump administration’s school privatization agenda
threatens our nation’s public schools and harms working-class students,
students with disabilities and students from diverse religious backgrounds.

President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” created the nation’s first
federal school voucher program at a cost of up to $51 billion a year — more
than it currently spends on the Title I program serving low-income students
and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) combined.

“President Trump and his billionaire campaign contributors have been
working overtime to create a two-tier education system in America: private
schools for the wealthy and well-connected and severely under-funded public
schools for low-income and working-class students. That is unacceptable,”
Sanders said. “This report makes clear that vouchers are being used to
benefit private schools that reject students because they have a disability
or because of their religion and benefit some of the wealthiest families in
America. Trump’s voucher program will only make a bad situation even
worse.”

To understand the potential impact of Trump’s voucher program on students
across the country, the report analyzes private schools currently receiving
vouchers through state-level voucher programs — a first-of-its-kind review
across 11 states, 111 entities that administer school vouchers (known as
“scholarship granting organizations” or SGOs) and over 1,600 affiliated
private schools.

[9]Read New Report by Senator Sanders on Harms of Privatizing Public
Education

Help us support public schools!

Public Schools First NC is a statewide nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit
focused solely

on pre-K to 12 public education issues. We collaborate with parents,
teachers, business and civic leaders, and communities across North Carolina
to advocate for one unified system of public education that prepares each
child for productive citizenship.

[10]DONATE HERE

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Questions? Contact us today at [email protected]

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