Peter Greene notes that the Trump White House is using its financial strings to move education policy in a rightward direction.
Nothing new about this, of course.
What is new is the Trump-initiated federal school voucher scheme.
As Greene notes, to the extent that these funds make it to public schools, they provide an additional level for the federal government to use to influence local education policy. And, Greene further explains, while Trump is in charge now, someone else will be eventually.
So federal school vouchers provide another opportunity for the feds to get tighter control over local schools, including those that aren’t so dependent on Title I or IDEA funds. Particularly if they adopt some of the ideas of Marguerite Rozas and use those voucher funds to finance important programs. Imagine if Bronx Science was used to taking in a couple million in federal voucher funds.
And for the MAGA crowd that thinks this would be just swell, I ask you to imagine what the power of that program might do in the hands of President Hilary Clinton or President Zohran Mamdani. You didn’t like how the feds used federal purse strings to push Common Core (neither did I)-- do you really want to see that movie again?
Federal vouchers represent, among their many shortcomings, a real chance for the federal government to gain more leverage for controlling local school districts. It’s a bad idea.
This is in addition to the other dangers of federal vouchers:
All vouchers harm students and undermine public education, and the federal voucher law is no different:
o Vouchers divert public funds to private schools.
o Vouchers lead to worse educational outcomes for students.
o Vouchers put students’ civil rights at risk.
o Vouchers lack quality and accountability standards and encourage fraud and abuse.
• The federal voucher program will subsidize the wealthy at the expense of public school students and taxpayers.
• Opting in to the federal voucher program sets a dangerous precedent and creates a slippery slope. Experience from state voucher programs shows that once a voucher program is instituted, it inevitably balloons in size and cost.
• Private education vouchers are wildly unpopular with voters. Every single time vouchers have been put to voters in red, blue, and purple states, they’ve been defeated at the ballot box.