Friend,

AU is tracking private school voucher bills in states across the country. Right now there are 89 “high priority” bills threatening public schools and secular education.

AU’s policy experts and advocates are working hard to organize opposition to as many of these proposed bills as possible, but with urgent support from you today, they can do even more.

Please click here to donate a special gift that will help us ensure public funds are used for public schools, not private religious education: [link removed]

It’s plain to see what inspired this new proliferation of private school voucher schemes:

“Betsy DeVos is gone — but ‘DeVosism’ sure isn’t. Look at what Florida, New Hampshire and other states are doing.” — The Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2021*

And given that all voucher programs must now allow funding for religious schools alongside secular schools (after the Supreme Court’s Espinoza decision), state legislators are more eager than ever to create or expand voucher programs.

Taxpayers should not be forced to fund private religious education, especially when doing so drains much-needed resources from America’s public schools. And also, let’s not forget that vouchers have their roots in efforts to evade integration orders and fund segregation academies specifically designed to keep black and white students apart.

Today, studies show that private-school vouchers continue to increase rates of segregation in America’s schools.

Protecting public education is a church-state separation issue, one that Americans United has worked on since our founding in 1947. It’s also an issue that is deeply connected to the unmet ideals of equality and inclusion that generations of civil rights advocates have fought for.

Please click here to make a special gift in support of our efforts to keep public funds where they belong: in public schools: [link removed]

Thank you for your support at this crucial time.

In solidarity,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

*[link removed]

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