Silence is Deadly: School Vouchers and the 2024 Election
Voters reject school vouchers even as national Republicans embrace them
Voters of all political stripes tend to oppose the idea of using public funds to support private schools.
School vouchers lose time and again when they are on the ballot, including in three states in this most recent election.
A recent ProPublica story digs deeper into the broad coalition of voters who offer clear evidence that supporting school vouchers is a losing issue.
In 2018, Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected school vouchers. On the ballot that year was a measure that would have allowed all parents — even the wealthiest ones — to receive taxpayer money to send their kids to private, typically religious schools.
Arizonans voted no, and it wasn’t close. Even in a right-leaning state, with powerful Republican leaders supporting the initiative, the vote against it was 65% to 35%.
This year, voters in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kentucky rejected vouchers. In Kentucky, the margin was 2-1 against vouchers - and all 120 counties in Kentucky opposed a ballot initiative that would have allowed vouchers.
ProPublica adds this note about the vote in Nebraska:
In Nebraska, nearly all 93 counties voted to repeal an existing voucher program; even its reddest county, where 95% of voters supported Trump, said no to vouchers.
The article adds:
Expansions of school vouchers, despite backing from wealthy conservatives, have never won when put to voters. Instead, they lose by margins not often seen in such a polarized country.
While voters strongly support public schools and consistently oppose school vouchers, the topic of education did not come up much in this presidential campaign.
This, despite Donald Trump’s policy agenda including an explicit endorsement of “universal school choice” (vouchers), and despite likely Trump picks to lead the Department of Education (including a possible return of Betsy DeVos) having a record of supporting school vouchers.
Make no mistake - using public funds to support private schools in the form of vouchers is a key part of the Trump/GOP education agenda.
Democrats can win when they support public schools - not only by defending them from privatizers but also by advancing an agenda that invests in them.
Support for public schools helped Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear win re-election in 2023.
As the ProPublica piece notes:
But the concrete results of ballot initiatives around the nation show that it is in fact Trump, DeVos and other voucher proponents who are out of step with the American people on this particular issue.
If Democrats are searching for a way back, a vigorous defense of public schools offers some hope. Tying GOP candidates to a widely unpopular issue like vouchers is one approach.
Democrats should go further, though, and also offer plans to invest in and support public schools.
In many rural communities, local schools are the center of activity. By both protecting these community institutions from privatizing predators and supporting investments that strengthen them, Democrats might gain a foothold on the long climb back to electoral victory.