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What You Need to Know About the National Private School Voucher Proposal
Bills Legislation and Litigation May Roberts at Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy Bills Legislation and Litigation May Roberts at Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy

What You Need to Know About the National Private School Voucher Proposal

School vouchers allow families to use public funds to pay for their children’s private school tuition. School voucher programs enacted across the country – using tax credits, grants, and savings accounts to divert public funding to pay for private education – have consistently demonstrated that states with voucher programs tend to expand the programs over time. These expansions dramatically increase the amount of public funds diverted to private education while state investments in public education remain stagnant or decrease. Despite the numerous negative consequences of using publicly funded vouchers to pay for K-12 private education expenses,1 policy makers across the country continue to propose similar programs.

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Voucher Boondoggle: House Advances Plan to Give the Wealthy $1.20 for Every $1 They Steer to Private K-12 Schools

Voucher Boondoggle: House Advances Plan to Give the Wealthy $1.20 for Every $1 They Steer to Private K-12 Schools

While there was never any question as to whether the committee’s majority supported private school vouchers, this is the first time they have gone on the record specifically endorsing the kind of profitable tax shelter embedded in many voucher programs. As we learned yesterday, most of the House Ways & Means Committee is content to facilitate new forms of wasteful tax avoidance if doing so aids the cause of funneling more public resources into private K-12 schools.

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States Should Bolster, Not Undermine, Education Gains Made with ESSER Funds
Draining Funds From Public Education Joanna LeFebvre Draining Funds From Public Education Joanna LeFebvre

States Should Bolster, Not Undermine, Education Gains Made with ESSER Funds

Over half of states divert public dollars away from public schools to private schools through school vouchers. In 2024, 14 states enacted new, or expanded existing, school voucher programs, and Colorado and Kentucky are considering legalizing school vouchers through ballot measures. For example, Florida will spend almost $4 billion on its school voucher program this year, an amount that could easily replace Florida’s total annual ESSER loss if invested in public, rather than private, schools.

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More Momwashing For Privatization
Undermining Public Education Peter Greene Undermining Public Education Peter Greene

More Momwashing For Privatization

The parenting bubble for anti-public ed activism is really expanding.

Jeanne Allen's Center for Education Reform has just rolled out the Parent Power Index! It assigns arbitrary values measures three vaguely defined qualities-- choice programs, charter schools, and innovation-- and gives each state a letter grade. There's nothing new being quantified here, just the same old anti-public school, anti-union wine in new parentified wineskins

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How Do Vouchers Defund Public Schools? Four Warnings and One Big Takeaway

How Do Vouchers Defund Public Schools? Four Warnings and One Big Takeaway

Over the past two years, school voucher systems and other related schemes that divert taxpayer revenue toward private K-12 tuition have passed state legislatures at unprecedented rates. Although these recent bills became law only, for the most part, in red states, their supporters include a handful of Democrats in other parts of the country as well. And all of this comes despite a decade of evidence that vouchers have led to some of the steepest declines in student achievement on record.

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States Should Reverse Course on Defunding Public Education Through Private School Vouchers and Property Tax Cuts
Draining Funds From Public Education Joanna LeFebvre Draining Funds From Public Education Joanna LeFebvre

States Should Reverse Course on Defunding Public Education Through Private School Vouchers and Property Tax Cuts

During this year’s legislative sessions, at least one in three states are considering or have enacted school voucher expansions alongside broad, untargeted property tax cuts. Over half of states have already enacted deep personal and corporate income tax cuts in the last three years. These policies will result in under-resourced public schools, worse student outcomes, and, over time, weaker communities.

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Vouchers undermine efforts to provide an excellent public education for all
Accountability Hilary Wething and Josh Bivens Accountability Hilary Wething and Josh Bivens

Vouchers undermine efforts to provide an excellent public education for all

Since the early 2000s, many states have introduced significant voucher programs to provide public financing for private school education. These voucher programs are deeply damaging to efforts to offer an excellent public education for all U.S. children—and this is in fact often the intention of those pushing these programs.

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Vouchers Fund Discrimination
Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars, Discrimination Illinois Families for Public Schools Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars, Discrimination Illinois Families for Public Schools

Vouchers Fund Discrimination

Public schools in Illinois can't discriminate on the basis of disability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, pregnancy or parenting status, marital status, or religion. But under the Invest in Kids voucher program, public dollars are now going to private schools in Illinois, many of which do discriminate against students in all these protected categories.

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Game Over for School Vouchers in Illinois!</a>
Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Illinois Families for Public Schools Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Illinois Families for Public Schools

Game Over for School Vouchers in Illinois!

In 2017, as a result of a backroom deal between then Governor Rauner, legislative leaders and the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the IL General Assembly created a K-12 voucher program for Illinois in the form of a tax credit scholarship scheme. Known as the Invest in Kids Act, the law allows up to $75 million in tax revenue to be diverted to private schools each year. More than $250 million state dollars have now been siphoned off to private schools in our state.

This program was intended to last for five years and to sunset after the 2022-2023 school year. It was extended for one additional school year already. Voucher supporters and school privatizers want it to be made permanent and expand!

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