Vouchers, Vouchers Everywhere
And no more funds for public schools
Save Our Schools Arizona accurately sums up the current climate in education in this week’s weekly report:
From Arizona to DC, the agenda is becoming increasingly clear: privatizers are after our public schools, and they’re aiming to totally dismantle public education, replacing it with an unaccountable, voucherized, for-profit free-for-all that will undermine quality education for generations .
⚠️ Federal Voucher Bill Moving in Congress: This week, the US House Ways & Means Committee approved the nation’s first federal voucher program — deceptively titled “Qualified Elementary and Secondary Education Scholarships” and also known as “ECCA” — as part of Trump’s “one big, beautiful” tax proposal. The 400+ page bill seeks to make massive cuts to Medicaid and food stamps while funding a voucher program that would cost US taxpayers a projected $20 billion over the next four years.
While the budget situation is a bit murky right now - with some Republicans joining Democrats last week to stall the current proposal - Mike Johnson, President Trump, and the GOP that runs the House and Senate are still in control - and still very much want a budget that includes a nationwide school voucher scheme.
The tax plan moving through the U.S. House of Representatives includes a provision granting extraordinarily generous treatment to nonprofits that give out vouchers for free or reduced tuition at private K-12 schools.[1] While the bill significantly cuts charitable giving incentives overall, nonprofits that commit to focusing solely on supporting private K-12 schools would be spared from those cuts and see their donors’ tax incentive almost triple relative to what they receive today. On top of that, the bill goes out of its way to provide school voucher donors who contribute corporate stock with an extra layer of tax subsidy that works as a lucrative tax shelter. Essentially, the bill allows wealthy individuals to avoid paying capital gains tax as a reward for funneling public funds into private schools.
Meanwhile, even as Pennsylvania moves to protect consumers thanks to Gov. Shapiro, some lawmakers in the Keystone State are still committed to pushing a school voucher scheme:
The new bill expands eligibility for the vouchers, adding students whose families make under 250% of the federal poverty limit. It adds a responsibility for the State Treasurer to create some regulations which will be deemed “temporary.” There are new requirements for the private schools receiving vouchers to report data about the voucher students. Otherwise, it is a word-for-word resubmission of the previous voucher bill.
The bottom line: Public education is under assault.
Keep following this issue Tennessee.
Vouchers rarely cover the full cost and for profit private schools may not be subject to Federal educational Disability laws. Less privileged children are forced to attend public school in which funding is endangered. Many of those children are BIPOC who will lose important learning resources in less enriched environments. This will benefit no one except the DeVos family.