ALL RESOURCES
FILTER BY TAG
Select a tag
- Academic performance
- Accessibility
- Accountability
- Advocacy
- Advocates
- Article
- Bill analysis
- Bill tracker
- Billionaires
- Blog post
- Civil rights
- Coalition building
- Community Schools
- Cost impact analysis
- Dark Money
- Data
- Disability
- Discrimination
- Drain funds from public education
- Education Savings Account (ESA)
- English language learners
- Fact sheet
- Fraud Waste and Abuse
- Graphic
- History
- Indigenous and Native Education
- Integration
- LGBTQ+
- Legislation
- Letter
- Litigation
- Messaging or talking points
- Model legislation
- National Voucher
- News
- Parents
- Personal narrative
- Podcast
- Policy brief
- Policymakers
- Radio
- Referendum
- Religion
- Report
- Rural communities
- Segregation
- Separation of church and state
- Slide deck
- Slides
- State Constitutional Right to Education
FILTER BY AUTHOR
Select an author
- Aaron Sanderford
- Alec MacGillis
- Allen Pratt
- Associated Press
- Bob Peterson
- Bruce Schreiner
- Catherine Caruso
- David Montgomery
- David Pepper
- Eli Hager
- Emily Walkenhorst
- Ethan Dewitt
- Geoff Mulvihill
- Hilary Wething
- Howard Fischer
- Jason Bailey
- Jessica Corbett
- Jim Collier
- Joe Dana
- Joshua Cowen
- Juan Perez Jr.
- Kiera Butler
- Laura Pappano
- Liam Amick
- Maurice Cunnningham
- Nora De La Cour
- Paige Masten
- Patrick Darrington
- Paul Hammel
- Phil Williams
- Rob Boston
- Robert Huber
- Rowan Moore Geretsy
- Sasha Pudelski
Distant Dome: Education Freedom Account Expansion Will Be Costly
The parents of the 11,000 students who applied for grants from the newly opened vault in the state treasury are not the ones advocates tout as the beneficiary of the Education Freedom Account program if New Hampshire resembles other state’s experiences when they transitioned to “universal vouchers.”
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.
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.
Inside Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s support for private school vouchers
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is being eyed as a potential Democratic vice presidential nominee, but with that attention has come intense scrutiny of his support for a traditionally conservative idea: taxpayer-funded private school vouchers.
NC voucher fallout: We’re all paying for pricey private schools. It’ll get worse
Charlotte Christian School states on its website that all families applying for financial assistance for the 2024-25 school year must also apply to North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship program. The same is true of Trinity Academy in Raleigh, North Raleigh Christian Academy and many other schools in the state that accept voucher payments.
Deal to expand private school vouchers falls apart as NC lawmakers wind down session
An effort to expand a North Carolina program that uses taxpayer dollars to send students to private school collapsed in the statehouse as lawmakers drew the short legislative session to a close on Thursday.
Republican leaders of the state House and Senate had hoped to expand the Opportunity Scholarships program and had earmarked more than $460 million for the program in separate budget proposals. But negotiations fell apart between the chambers as they tried to figure out how to spend a $1 billion surplus.
How the Right Exploits ‘Moms’ to Privatize Education
Moms are allegedly at the center of a rightwing campaign attacking public schools and advocating for school vouchers. The latest entry in the “moms space” is called Moms on a Mission, which the organization’s website reveals is an offshoot of the Betsy DeVos-controlled American Federation for Children (AFC).
This Ain't It': Pennsylvanians Slam Jay-Z's Roc Nation for School Voucher Push
Vouchers emerged in the United States as a tool to combat public As pro-public education groups plan a rally at the Pennsylvania State Capitol, educators and advocates on Friday criticized hip-hop icon Jay-Z's company Roc Nation over a campaign backing a proposed school voucher program in the commonwealth.
The campaign's "Dine & Learn" events in Philadelphia this month are intended to share information about the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) or "Lifelife Scholarships," as supporters also call them. If approved by state legislators in the next budget, the program would put tax dollars toward "education opportunity accounts" for certain families to send their children to K-12 private schools rather than low-performing public ones.
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.
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.
Dark Money Vouchers Are Having a Moment
Over the past 12 months, the decades-long push to divert tax dollars toward religious education has reached new heights. As proclaimed by EdChoice—the advocacy group devoted to school vouchers—2023 has been the year these schemes reached “escape velocity.” In strictly legislative terms, seven states passed new voucher systems, and ten more expanded existing versions. Ten states now run eleven universal voucher programs, all of which have no meaningful income or other restrictions.
Research on school vouchers suggests concerns ahead for education savings accounts
Private school choice is having quite a moment. Whether structured as traditional school vouchers paying direct appropriations for private tuition, scholarships funded by redirected state income tax liabilities, or as new education savings accounts (ESAs), the use of public funds for private schooling has never been more prominent. In 2023 alone, seven states passed new programs and nine expanded existing plans. This push is largely a red state phenomenon. Of the new or expanded private choice states, all but two went for Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
Conservative groups stand in way of Tennessee governor’s private-school vouchers
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Republican leaders — predicting passage of a private-school voucher bill in 2025 — will have to outflank conservative groups as well as opponents such as the Tennessee Education Association.
NJ A4144/S3035 is a Private School Voucher Bill and it is Extremely Dangerous
Make no mistake – this bill would create New Jersey’s first and only PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHER program. Do not be fooled by code words like “scholarships” and “student support organization” and “tax credits.” As one court put it when striking down a similar tax credit voucher law, the program’s unconstitutionality could not be “evaded through the mechanism of funding this program from a tax credit rather than by a direct appropriation of tax dollars.”
Welcome to the GOP's new education agenda: Loot our public schools for private vouchers
In North Carolina and Kentucky, public schools are the center of our communities. We’re proud public school graduates ourselves – and we know the critical role our schools play in teaching our students, strengthening our workforces and growing our economies.
Parents like private school vouchers so much that demand is exceeding budgets in some states
In some states, higher-income families can now use taxpayer money to cover private school tuition -- and more people than projected are taking the offer, which might force scrambles to shore up state budgets. It’s especially an issue in states like Arizona and Iowa, where at least some families whose children were already in private school can now take advantage of public funding.
$6,500 school vouchers coming to Georgia as bill gets final passage and heads to governor
Georgia senators gave final approval Wednesday to a plan to create a $6,500 voucher funding for private school tuition and home schooling, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
Private Schools, Public Money: School Leaders Are Pushing Parents to Exploit Voucher Programs
Voucher expansions have unleashed a flood of additional taxpayer dollars to the benefit of families already enrolled in private schools. In Ohio, some schools are now “strongly encouraging” parents to apply for vouchers, regardless of need or income.
Tax Avoidance Continues to Fuel School Privatization Efforts
One of the most disturbing recent shifts in U.S. public policy has been the renewed push to privatize the nation’s K-12 education system.[1] Originally born out of a desire to preserve school segregation and racial inequality more broadly, the so-called “school choice” movement is enjoying a resurgence as many state lawmakers look for ways to move more kids into private and religious schools.[2] That end is being hastened through the tax code in major ways. In short, school privatization proponents have managed to set up state policies that harness deficiencies in federal tax law and the self-interest of wealthy families to gin up enthusiasm for privatizing the U.S. public education system.
School vouchers are big in Arizona and Florida, but Tennessee should not follow suit
Tennessee should fight back against the voucher scheme. Invest richly in local public schools as the most important economic driver for your state.