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EdTrust 1/24/25 EdTrust 1/24/25

Protect Public Schools: An Advocacy Toolkit to Fight School Voucher Programs

School voucher programs and their many iterations (education savings accounts, tax credits, etc.) drain funds from public schools while disproportionately harming Black and Brown students from low-income backgrounds and students with disabilities. This toolkit provides the resources and information communities need to launch effective advocacy campaigns against school voucher programs in their state.

Public Funds Public Schools 12/22/23 Public Funds Public Schools 12/22/23

Keep Public Funds in Texas Public Schools

Private school voucher bills are being debated in the Texas Legislature again this year. An ever-increasing body of research shows that vouchers negatively affect student achievement, harm rural communities, exacerbate school segregation, promote discrimination, and undermine public school systems that welcome and serve all students. Texas public schools, which educate the vast majority of children, including the largest number of rural students in the country, remain starkly underfunded. Texas lawmakers must continue rejecting proposals for harmful voucher programs and instead use state resources to invest in public schools.

Public Funds Public Schools 12/22/23 Public Funds Public Schools 12/22/23

Let the Illinois “Invest in Kids” Private School Voucher Law Sunset

Illinois’ “Invest in Kids” tax credit voucher program is set to sunset after the 2023-2024 school year. This unpopular pilot program should lapse as intended in the law. Illinois should reject any attempt to extend the program or make it permanent, as well as any proposal to establish additional voucher programs. Instead, the state must invest in its underfunded public schools, which, unlike private schools, welcome and serve all students.

Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy 12/21/23 Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy 12/21/23

Future Costs of Idaho SB 1038’s Universal ESA Projected to Rise Sharply

Senate Bill 1038, which is before the Idaho Senate, would create a universal private education program. According to the bill’s fiscal note, in its first year (FY2024) Freedom in Education Savings Accounts (ESA’s) would cost the state about $45 million in Fiscal Year 2024 by serving about 6,600 Idaho students and providing administrative funds for the new program.

Florida Policy Institute 12/21/23 Florida Policy Institute 12/21/23

Universal Vouchers Will Cost Florida Billions in Education Dollars

On March 27, 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed CS/CS/CS/CS/HB 1 into law.1 This bill makes vouchers, known as Florida Empowerment Scholarships and Florida Tax Credit (FTC) Scholarships, available to all students in the state who are eligible for kindergarten through grade 12, regardless of family income. Vouchers already cost $1.4 billion — dollars that are redirected from public education to private schools.

Florida Policy Institute and the Education Law Center 12/21/23 Florida Policy Institute and the Education Law Center 12/21/23

Estimating FL’s SB 202 Universal Voucher Cost in First Year

The SB 202 proposed legislation in Florida would further expand the already substantial voucher program, pulling an estimated $4 billion in state aid from public school districts to private education in 2023-24 though Florida Empowerment Scholarships with the cost increasing annually. Estimates of the cost of this program at the district and state level were made based on a variety of assumptions described below. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, providing $568 million in vouchers in 2021-22, is also poised for expansion, but estimates for that program are not included here.

National Education Policy Center 12/20/23 National Education Policy Center 12/20/23

The State of Education Savings Account Programs in the United States

Education Savings Accounts are a new form of private school choice and are arguably the most strongly promoted approach by voucher advocates. This policy brief examines the emerging policy, considering how it mirrors and differs from conventional voucher ap- proaches and examining the legal issues that it raises.

Education Voters of Pennsylvania 12/20/23 Education Voters of Pennsylvania 12/20/23

PA EITC and OSTC School Voucher Programs

The Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) voucher programs work by reducing taxes paid by businesses to the state when they contribute to scholarship organizations that provide vouchers for children to attend a private or religious school. The programs are administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).

Southern Education Foundation 12/20/23 Southern Education Foundation 12/20/23

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.

Public Funds Public Schools 12/19/23 Public Funds Public Schools 12/19/23

Invest in Public Schools

This policy brief focuses on Mississippi’s ESA voucher program. In 2015, the Mississippi Legislature passed and the governor signed Senate Bill 2695, “The Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act.”1 The act established an Education Scholarship Account (ESA) voucher, which sends public money to private schools. The voucher was set up as a five-year pilot to test the effectiveness of voucher programs in Mississippi, and it will end in 2020. In the 2020 legislative session, lawmakers will decide whether to continue funding this voucher program or allow public dollars to remain in public schools.

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