Private School Coupons for Wealthy Families Create AZ Budget Shortfall
Universal school vouchers in Arizona turned into a rich get richer scheme
Arizona’s school voucher scheme sheds light on a warning issued by public school advocates for years: Universal school voucher plans ultimately become private school coupons for rich families. Arizona’s scheme adds another wrinkle, though - it allows families to keep the K-12 dollars in an “education savings account” and then use it on college.
It’s essentially a $7000-$8000 a year handout to families already at the top of the income chart.
Save Our Schools Arizona offers more:
While special interests and former Gov. Ducey touted vouchers as a way to level the educational playing field, the reality is that Arizona’s ESA vouchers have “primarily only helped the rich.” 12 News shows current data that undeniably proves Arizona’s voucher program is geared towards helping the rich pay for private schools their kids were already attending.
12 News found vouchers played a key role in an unprecedented $206 million funding shortfall announced by Supt. Tom Horne in May.
$440 million in voucher funding sitting unused: This report uncovered massive amounts of unused voucher funding collecting dust in accounts and points out that while Arizona’s ESA vouchers primarily go to high-income families, funding for Arizona public schools is among the worst in the US.
The 2025-26 academic year will be the first one operating in Tennessee’s new, universal school voucher scheme. The 20,000 vouchers will cost taxpayers $140 million. The cost is projected to rise to over $1 billion within 5 years. Income limits are also generous, allowing for the same type of hoarding going on in Arizona.
Make no mistake: Wealthy Gov. Bill Lee created a scheme for wealthy TN families to collect taxpayer dollars. The plan will also wreak havoc on local public school budgets (likely leading to tax increases) and could unbalance the state budget - as it has in states like Arizona and Indiana.
Yes, that’s right: Tennesseans are likely to see local taxes go up in order to fund a private school coupon program for wealthy families. At the same time, those families seeing their taxes increase are unlikely to be able to make much use of the vouchers - as they don’t generally cover the cost of full tuition at quality private schools.
Well, and then there’s the data - in state after state, and even in Tennessee’s baby voucher program - that tells us that school vouchers actually fail at the goal of improving student academic outcomes.
Worse outcomes for kids.
More money spent by taxpayers.
Zero accountability.
That’s Bill Lee’s school voucher legacy.