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Federal Voucher Program – FAQs
Bills Legislation and Litigation Public Funds Public Schools Bills Legislation and Litigation Public Funds Public Schools

Federal Voucher Program – FAQs

The expansion of private school vouchers through the inclusion of a federal voucher scheme in the budget reconciliation bill passed in July is part of a broader assault on public education designed to privatize one of the most important common goods underpinning American democracy. Opting in to the federal program (the state’s choice), even to use voucher money for public education students, broadly endangers public education and opens the door to further voucher expansion, whether vouchers are already available in a given state or not.

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States Must Reject Harmful Voucher Program
Bills Legislation and Litigation Public Funds Public Schools Bills Legislation and Litigation Public Funds Public Schools

States Must Reject Harmful Voucher Program

The federal voucher program contained in the budget reconciliation bill passed in early July will divert federal tax dollars from the U.S. Treasury and from services, including public education, that Americans rely on, to give to private and religious schools that pick and choose whom they educate and openly discriminate against some students and families.

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Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Devastate Public Schools. America’s Kids Will Pay the Price
Bills Legislation and Litigation Jessica Alcantara and Laura Petty Bills Legislation and Litigation Jessica Alcantara and Laura Petty

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Devastate Public Schools. America’s Kids Will Pay the Price

This week, Republican lawmakers are attempting to pass a budget reconciliation bill that pays for unprecedented handouts to the wealthiest Americans on the backs of cuts to programs that benefit most people. Hidden in this budget package before the House is a national private school voucher program funded through tax breaks for the wealthy that threatens to dismantle our system of public schools.

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The School Voucher Debate – How School Choice Affects Low-Income Communities and Housing
Toolkits and Guides Eric Lawrence Frazier Toolkits and Guides Eric Lawrence Frazier

The School Voucher Debate – How School Choice Affects Low-Income Communities and Housing

The school choice movement, heavily supported by the Trump administration, aims to expand access to private and charter schools by redirecting public education funds through vouchers. These programs allow families to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition, but they come with serious consequences for public education, particularly in low-income and minority communities.

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How vouchers harm public schools
Studies Reports and Data Hilary Wething Studies Reports and Data Hilary Wething

How vouchers harm public schools

The growing popularity of vouchers raises a host of crucial questions and concerns. Key to informing the debate are questions of public finance and education quality. Is allowing public money to leave the public school system and follow kids to private schools the most effective or equitable way to make sure every child has access to an excellent education? Our view is that it’s not. Public dollars allocated to education should go to boosting spending in public systems, not subsidizing private education.

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A Conversation with ELC Senior Fellow Josh Cowen, Author of The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers (October 2024):
Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Public Funds Public Schools and Joshua Cowen Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Public Funds Public Schools and Joshua Cowen

A Conversation with ELC Senior Fellow Josh Cowen, Author of The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers (October 2024):

This PFPS webinar features Dr. Josh Cowen, Education Law Center Senior Fellow and professor of education policy at Michigan State University, in conversation with Maria Bautista of the NYU Metro Center about his new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold Vouchers. The book provides a deep-dive investigation into education privatization covering a range of topics, including the origins of private school vouchers and the network of billionaire conservatives who have converged around the issue. It also highlights how vouchers are failing students and exacerbating income inequality, arguing that the advancement of privatization policies is an assault on public education as a defining American institution.

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How Religious Schools Became a Billion-Dollar Drain on Public Education
Draining Funds From Public Education Alec MacGillis Draining Funds From Public Education Alec MacGillis

How Religious Schools Became a Billion-Dollar Drain on Public Education

The center had played a key role in bringing about one of the most dramatic expansions of private-school vouchers in the country, making it possible for all Ohio families—even the richest among them—to receive public money to pay for their children’s tuition. In the mid-nineteen-nineties, Ohio became the second state to offer vouchers, but in those days they were available only in Cleveland and were billed as a way for disadvantaged children to escape struggling schools. Now the benefits extend to more than a hundred and fifty thousand students across the state, costing taxpayers nearly a billion dollars, the vast majority of which goes to the Catholic and evangelical institutions that dominate the private-school landscape there.

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No Vouchers! Public Funds Are For Public Schools!
Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Public Funds Public Schools Personal Narratives Blogs Webinars Public Funds Public Schools

No Vouchers! Public Funds Are For Public Schools!

Experts including Professor Josh Cowen, ELC Senior Fellow and author of The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, and Jessica Levin, ELC Litigation Director and Director of Public Funds Public Schools, discuss the implications of Donald Trump's presidency on public schools and voucher programs.

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Ohio’s expanded vouchers are bleeding public schools that often outperform the private schools that benefit
Discrimination Jim Collier Discrimination Jim Collier

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.

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Opposing Private School Vouchers:A Toolkit for Legislators and Advocates
Toolkits and Guides National Coalition for Public Education Toolkits and Guides National Coalition for Public Education

Opposing Private School Vouchers:A Toolkit for Legislators and Advocates

This toolkit is designed as a resource to help legislators and pro-public education advocates oppose attempts to create new or expand existing private school voucher programs.

In recent years, a network of anti-public-education politicians and lobbying groups has been emboldened in its push for private school vouchers. Billionaires like the DeVoses, including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Kochs, and the Waltons are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on these campaigns. These funders are using their war chests to lobby for voucher bills in state legislatures, contribute to the political campaigns of pro-voucher candidates, and seed astroturf petition drives to put vouchers on the ballot.

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Let the Illinois “Invest in Kids” Private School Voucher Law Sunset
Studies Reports and Data Public Funds Public Schools Studies Reports and Data Public Funds Public Schools

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.

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