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Be wary of what you read in the school voucher debate
The information surrounding universal voucher programs is rife with advocacy masquerading as research.
Ohio’s expanded vouchers are bleeding public schools that often outperform the private schools that benefit
Vouchers emerged in the United States as a tool to combat public school integration in southern states following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Led by Virginia, state legislatures provided public funds for white students to attend private schools — often referred to as “segregation academies.”
A new era of vouchers rebranded as “school choice” has swept the country in recent years, including Ohio, resurrecting segregation academies on wealth and racial lines.
Don’t Be Fooled By 'School Choice.' It’s a Trojan Horse for Privatizing Education.
Since 2023, state legislators across America have introduced more than 200 bills to create or expand private school vouchers, using taxpayer funds to reimburse families who choose to send their children to private schools. Supporters of vouchers claim they promote “school choice” or even promote equity. The reality is they drain crucially needed resources from public education, the only system enshrined in all 50 states’ constitutions and committed to educating all students, regardless of abilities, economic circumstances, race, religion, gender or special needs.
Wisconsin public schools held to higher standards than choice or voucher ones
Supporters of Wisconsin’s voucher schools make it seem that the schools are just one of many variations of our public schools. Don’t be fooled.
Telling the Real Story on School Voucher Programs Rapid Response Memo
Opponents of public schools have pushed forward with another attack on children’s freedom to learn. This time, some elected officials are threatening to rip funds from students via school voucher programs to bankroll private schools for the wealthy and hide their refusal to fully fund public schools and ensure that every child from the big cities to small towns has a neighborhood school where they can learn, grow and thrive.
PFPS Webinar Series
Public Funds Public Schools lists their series of webinars on school voucher programs with descriptions and links.
The Truth About ESA Vouchers
This webpage from Save Our Schools Arizona provides resources, videos, and fact sheets about Arizona’s ESA voucher program.
Studies and Reports
The National Coalition for Public Education has compiled studies and reports on school voucher programs.
Say No to School Vouchers
The opportunity to access a high-quality public education is foundational to the American promise of liberty and opportunity for all—a promise protected by the constitution of every state to educate young learners. School vouchers, in practice, mainly subsidize private school tuition for affluent families in or near urban areas. Private schools that accept school vouchers often restrict access to students based on ability status, religion, or personal characteristics such as style of hair. When used for school privatization, public funds primarily function as an unregulated benefit for wealthy families on the taxpayer’s dime. Instead of spending valuable time and resources on voucher programs, states should invest in strengthening the public education system with research-based strategies that improve students’ content mastery and whole-child outcomes.
Voucher Talking Points
This talking points document from the North Carolina Justice Center includes general talking points on the impact of school voucher programs and specific points in response to 2023 voucher legislation.
School Choice: Myth vs. Truth
The Parents’ Campaign Research and Education Fund provides a myth vs. truth about the impact of school voucher programs.
Joint Letter re “Lifeline Scholarship” Proposal
The Education Law Center-PA, PSEA, AFT-Pennsylvania, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, SEIU, SEIU 32BJ, UFCW 1776, and the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council on behalf of their members wrote a letter to the Shapiro administration conveying deep concern and complete opposition to the idea of implementing any school voucher program in Pennsylvania, whether it is called “lifeline scholarships” or anything else
School Privatization Policy Brief
The Southern Education Foundation developed this policy brief SEF in opposition to all school voucher programs, education savings accounts, tax credit scholarship programs, and any other efforts to fund private schools with public dollars. In the seventeen states SEF serves, twelve states operate school privatization programs that provide either school vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, or education savings accounts, resulting in 276,000 participating students and amounting to $1.6 billion in state funding or tax benefits to fund private schools or pay for private education services.
A History of Private Schools and Race in the American South
Private schools in the South were established, expanded, and supported to preserve the Southern tradition of racial segregation in the face of the federal courts’ dismantling of “separate but equal.” White students left public schools in droves to both traditional and newly formed private schools. From 1950 to 1965, private school enrollment grew at unprecedented rates all over the nation, with the South having the largest growth.
Letter re SB 795 Private School Vouchers
The Education Law Center-PA wrote this letter urging the senate to reject SB 795. Funding private schools with public dollars, as this bill proposes, will not move the Commonwealth a single dollar closer to its constitutional mandate, which is to support and maintain a contemporary, effective public education system accessible to every child in the Commonwealth, regardless of their school district’s local wealth. In fact, it does the opposite, redirecting funds away from public schools and making compliance with the court ruling harder to achieve.
Something to Lose: How School Voucher Programs Fail to Provide Civil Rights and Constitutional Protections
This webinar features Dr. Preston Green, Professor of Educational Leadership and Law at the University of Connecticut and the John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education at the Neag School. Dr. Green has extensive knowledge of education law and has published numerous articles and book chapters on legal and policy issues related to educational access and school privatization. Dr. Green discusses school voucher programs and how these programs fail to provide civil rights and constitutional protections to students. He also discusses protections for students participating in voucher programs.