Why You Should Be Opposed to School Vouchers

The Short Short Version

School vouchers, under any name, remove public control of public funds allocated for public education.

The Highlights

·         School vouchers, which take several different forms, use public funds for private purposes and may be illegal in Texas.

·         Vouchers won’t save the state money.

·         Vouchers may promote the use of Common Core curriculum and undermine parts of HB5.

The Details

Vouchers, neo-vouchers, education savings accounts—what does all this mean?

Traditional vouchers use public funds for private purposes where the use is directed by an individual or individuals. Public funds are given to an individual who then uses them at a private school. Control of funds rests with the individual(s). Neo-vouchers, including tax credit vouchers or scholarships, are funded by donations given to a subgroup/non-profit organization in exchange for dollar-for-dollar tax credits, thus bypassing the state coffers. The non-profit organization then disperses the funds as scholarships for use at private schools. Control of funds rests with the subgroups/non-profit organization rather than with lawmakers. Education Savings Accounts grant families a credit to a savings account in exchange for not sending their child to a public school. Funds can be used for a variety of educational purposes.

Vouchers may—or may not—be legal in Texas.

The Texas state constitution restricts spending to support religious institutions, so traditional vouchers are probably not legal. Across the country, neo-vouchers are becoming more common. Why?  Because they side-step restrictions on using public funds to support religious institutions, since taxpayer dollars are never given to the state but instead go directly to the non-profit administering the scholarships. The advantages are that they may be deemed legal and that since the general public does not understand the details of the plan there will be less public resistance. But the question remains as to what constitutes state funds and whether the fact that the money is never in the hands of the state is enough to justify the claim that state funds are not being used and thus the vouchers are legal. This would be a decision for the courts to make, and across the country courts have been split on this issue.

Vouchers take the public-ness out of public schools.

So what makes public schools public? There are 5 factors of public-ness:

1. Public purpose – Education is essential to a democracy and we all benefit when children are educated.
2. Public funding – We all invest together.
3. Public access – Schools serve the needs of all of the public.
4. Public accountability – Our elected neighbors establish a common baseline.
5. Public curriculum – We decide together what it means to be educated in our community.

Vouchers take this public-ness away from public education. Public education no longer serves a common purpose where we all work together to make decisions that benefit everyone. Only public funding remains.

Vouchers won’t save the state money.

One argument in favor of vouchers is that they can save the state money because they can be capped at a lower amount than the state would allocate to a public school for the same student. This argument makes sense if all or most of the students receiving vouchers are “switchers” who are leaving public school for private school. In Wisconsin, only 20% of voucher recipients are switchers. 80% of voucher recipients were receiving no state education funding prior to receiving vouchers—they were either already in private school or were homeschooled. In this case, the burden on the state increases rather than decreases.

Additionally, it is very unlikely that the state could recover voucher funding for students who enroll in a private school and then switch back to public school mid-year. In most cases, the voucher school would keep the year’s worth of funding regardless of whether or not the student attended the school for the entire year.

Vouchers may lead to Common Core and erode HB5.

As there is no public accountability for curriculum, voucher schools may use Common Core State Standards and curriculum. The state would have no control over this. Additionally, voucher schools may not be held accountable for providing the different high school graduation options required under HB5. In this way, vouchers would use public funds to subsidize activities that directly contradict state law.

What Can You Do About It?

• Read this sister post to learn more about school vouchers.
• Follow any voucher, tax-credit scholarship, or education savings account bills in the upcoming session and let your representatives know that you oppose these bills.
• Share this post to help educate others about school vouchers.

Note

On December 2, 2014, the Coalition for Public Schools hosted a pre-legislative education symposium on school vouchers. The panelists included: Dr. Kevin Welner, Director of the National Education Policy Center, Professor of Education Policy, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder School of Education; Dr. Julie Fisher Mead, Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison; Dr. Luis Huerta, Teachers College, Columbia University; Dr. David Anthony, Raise Your Hand Texas; Leslie Boggs, Texas PTA President; and Gina Hinojosa, Austin ISD School Board. The panelists cited many credible academic studies of school vouchers. Many of these studies have been conducted in Milwaukee and Cleveland, as these cities have long-established voucher programs. Other studies have been conducted in Arizona, Florida, and Washington, DC.

This post is based on information shared by the above experts during this symposium.