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The article discusses the Republican push for school vouchers, which are financial aids provided by local and state governments to parents for private school tuition, as a part of their broader educational policy agenda. Critics, including education policy experts, argue that these vouchers primarily benefit families already sending their children to private schools, often leading to worse educational outcomes for students who switch from public to private schools and contributing to the financial decline of public schools. The article highlights concerns about the escalating costs of voucher programs, illustrated by Arizona’s budget exceeding predictions, and misuse of funds on non-educational expenses, emphasizing the negative impact on already underfunded public schools.
School vouchers have been central to Republican education plans for years. Instead of funding public K-12 education, many Republicans prefer local and state governments to provide vouchers, which are checks to pay tuition at private schools.
School vouchers are a major aspect of Project 2025, a 922-page blueprint of right-wing policies likely to be enacted if former President Donald Trump wins the presidency. This includes plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and increase the difficulty of affording college.
The document, titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a plan for a Republican administration in 2025. Created by the Heritage Foundation and 100 other right-wing groups, 140 contributors worked in the Trump administration.
The first page of the education chapter calls for universal school vouchers. It argues parents should receive vouchers funded by local and state governments, but not the federal government.
Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University, argues vouchers don’t work. “It’s essentially a tuition forgiveness plan for K-12 private school kids,” he said, noting that Republicans opposing student loan forgiveness support these vouchers.
A July report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy found that in states with voucher programs, 65%-90% of voucher costs subsidize families already using private schools.
Cowen noted that parents using vouchers to move children from public to private schools often see worse outcomes. Many children end up in what Cowen calls “subprime” private schools.
“Most good private schools are full, and 70% of voucher users are already in private schools,” Cowen said. “For those switching from public to private, they suffer significant academic loss.”
Voucher programs often lead to new schools chasing state funding. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 41% of start-up voucher schools failed between 1991 and 2015, according to a 2016 research paper.
Deven Carlson, an education policy researcher at the University of Oklahoma, said vouchers have far exceeded initial expectations.
“In the early ’90s, no one envisioned statewide no-income-limit school vouchers,” Carlson said. They were initially meant to help low-income students in urban areas but have become an alternative to the public education system.
Arizona’s universal school vouchers program, implemented in 2022, has seen costs skyrocket from an estimated $65 million to $429 million this year, according to ProPublica.
Many expenses are unnecessary for education, Cowen argued. “Voucher advocates might call them homeschool expenses, but they include kayaks, grills, big-screen TVs, and SeaWorld tickets.”
Students must be disenrolled from public school for parents to receive voucher money, Cowen said, causing public schools to lose state funding based on student head counts.
Janneken Smucker, a parent in Philadelphia, said vouchers drain money from underfunded public schools. “I’d rather see funds improve public schools than send kids to private schools,” she said.
In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court ruled in 2023 that the state wasn’t upholding its constitutional obligation to fund schools.
“Parents should use available resources like grants and scholarships if choosing private school,” Smucker said. “It shouldn’t come at the expense of public school children.”
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