POLICYMAKERS

We cannot afford to fund two school systems — both our public system and a private system — especially when one has such little accountability or measurable return on investment. Programs like this have decimated budgets in state after state, and we believe Nebraskans demand more responsible decisions be made with their tax dollars.

Arizona does no vetting of new voucher schools. Not even if the school or the online school “provider” has already failed, or was founded yesterday, or is operating out of a strip mall or a living room or a garage, or offers just a half hour of instruction per morning. (If you’re an individual tutor in Arizona, all you need in order to register to start accepting voucher cash is a high school diploma.)

House Republican leadership want to include a $20 billion private school voucher program in the 2025 tax-reconciliation bill. Known as the Educational Choice for Children Act of 2024 (H.R. 9462 in the 118th Congress), it would give away $5 billion per year for each of the next four years of federal taxpayer dollars to fund private school vouchers. Instead of directing resources to the public schools that 90% of American children attend, vouchers divert critical federal dollars to students already attending private schools and to schools that can cherry pick which students they want to educate.

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.

The Kentucky General Assembly enacted a private school voucher program in 2021 and legislation was filed to expand the program before the state Supreme Court struck it down for violating Kentucky’s constitution. That decision led directly to the legislature putting Amendment 2 on the ballot. Similar states that lack Kentucky’s constitutional protections for public education have recently increased spending on vouchers and school privatization at a rapidly growing cost to their budgets. Given that history and context, it is plausible to assume the legislature will pursue a similar path if voters approve the amendment.

Across the US, right-wing state legislatures have disregarded popular will to enact costly school privatization plans. In North Carolina, they flouted democracy to advance their agenda.

Another secret recording obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates reveals how Tennessee lawmakers are facing pressure to send your tax dollars to the state's private schools.

In the recording, the lead lobbyist for a well-financed group lobbying for school vouchers warns a reluctant lawmaker that his job could be at stake if he doesn't vote the way she wants him to vote.

Florida receives an F on an A-F scale on all three funding metrics: funding level, funding distribution, and funding effort.

Since 2019, the flow of public funds to private education dramatically increased after the State Legislature enacted the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program.

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.

This webpage from Public Funds Public Schools is a useful tool for policy makers to filter through research on school voucher programs.

The PFPS bill tracker monitors all 50 states and the U.S. Congress for proposed legislation that creates, expands, or modifies private school voucher programs. Use the tracker to search for bills by number or keyword or to filter by state, year, and/or PFPS-assigned categories.

The use of publicly funded vouchers to support enrollment in private schools has a long history, but only over the past dozen years have private school vouchers gained significant traction in the United States. In some states over this time period, the growth in voucher programs has been dramatic.

The report Accountability and Private-School Choice, released by the Manhattan Institute in October, 2021, addresses the question of how private school voucher programs should be regulated. That is, if private schools are to receive public funds, what accountability mech- anisms can fairly and reasonably safeguard taxpayer dollars? The report advocates for re- laxing accountability mechanisms that presently constrain some voucher programs, assert- ing that “more and better” private schools will participate in response, benefitting students academically. Such claims, however, are supported by a selective reading and intentional misreading of educational research. Insofar as that is the case, the report merely repeats well-worn ideological positions and neither advances what we know about the challenge of regulating private schools nor offers useful information for policy decisions.

In this policy brief the Public School Forum of North Carolina provides six recommendations for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship school voucher program. The Opportunity Scholarships program in its current or expanded form represents significant investment of taxpayer dollars to support private and parochial schools. Similar to public schools and public charter schools, private schools that receive public dollars must be held accountable to the taxpayers who fund them. Additionally, parents must have access to accurate and reliable information when making school choice decisions, and state leaders must have the data needed to effectively evaluate how private schools receiving public funds are performing and to ensure that all children are receiving a sound basic education.