The national school voucher program included in a bill passed by the U.S. House will make the rich richer and further marginalize students based on religious, economic and disability status, panelists said during a recent town hall meeting.
The May 22 webinar was held just hours after President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” was forwarded to the U.S. Senate in a 215-214 vote.
The online discussion was held to highlight the voucher provision contained in the reconciliation measure which would, if passed, pump $5 billion annually into private religious and secular schools through 2029.
David Schuler
The bill “represents a dramatic and dangerous shift away from a long-standing bipartisan agreement in Congress that public funds remain in the public schools that serve nine out of every 10 students in America,” said David Schuler, executive director of the School Superintendents Association.
“What’s equally concerning is that this proposal would be funded through a major tax shelter that serves to benefit only the most wealthy Americans, and that this is happening at the same time this administration is proposing a 15% decrease to the funding of programs that exist to help public schools address academic inequities.”
Most of the students who stand to benefit from the federal voucher program already attend private schools, including those from privileged families, Schuler said. “What Congress is proposing would take money from public schools with an obligation to serve every child in every community in order to funnel that money to private schools who can pick and choose who they educate with no accountability measures attached in terms of how those dollars are spent or how success is measured by either schools or families.”
Amy Hanauer
To finance the voucher program, the bill would triple the tax benefit for donors giving to organizations that provide religious and secular school vouchers, said Amy Hanauer, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
“Just to be clear, no other charity — not pediatric cancer research, not disaster relief, not assisting disabled veterans — nothing gets this level of tax incentive. In fact, the bill cuts benefits for other charitable donations, and no other charity has ever gotten this kind of one-for-one payback from the federal government.”
Worse still, the bill enables Americans who donate stock to the voucher program to avoid capital gains, effectively creating a tax shelter for the wealthy, she said. “They would get more money by donating their stock than by selling it. It is the definition of a tax shelter because it gets people with no interest in the program to participate in it.”
Hanauer said her organization estimates the bill would reduce federal tax revenues by more than $23 billion annually over 10 years if it is extended and state tax revenues by $459 million a year over the same span.
“This is a destructive and flawed policy.”
“So, to sum up, this is an unprecedented giveaway that would enrich the wealthiest people, particularly those whose incomes come from stock, it would enrich private schools that are allowed to reject many students and it would take money from all of us, collectively, and from public schools. This is a destructive and flawed policy.”
The bill also would undermine the constitutional value of church-state separation by using government funds to pay for religious education, said Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Amanda Tyler
A vast majority of private school students attend private schools where religious education is central to their core curriculum, she said.
“They cannot separate their faith from their teaching, and nor should they,” Tyler added. “But they also shouldn’t do it with public money. Taxpayer dollars should never be used to pay for anyone’s religious education, and funding religion through compulsory taxation violates religious freedom and the foundational ideas that are critical to our pluralistic democracy.”
Education advocate Denise Forte termed the program “the great American heist” and said it will wreak havoc on marginalized students and families.
Denise Forte
“This is not education reform. It is not about student outcomes. Voucher schemes have been around for a long time and they have a very ugly lineage,” said Forte, president of EdTrust, an organization dedicated to promoting policies supportive of racial and economic equity in education.
Private schools funded by the program will not be bound by federal civil rights laws, meaning students can be denied enrollment or fair discipline based on the color of their skin, she said.
Jacqueline Rodriguez
Students with learning or physical challenges will face the same challenges under the bill, said Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
Private schools can carefully select students and are not required to provide the rights guaranteed to disabled children in public schools. Those institutions can also block students based on income and LGBTQ identity.
“This is not about giving families or parents choice. This is about giving schools choice to discriminate against kids,” Rodriguez said.
Passage of the measure also could be detrimental to rural public school systems by siphoning students to private settings, said Ginny Mott, vice president of the Maine State Parent Teacher Association.
“The departure of even a few students can have a magnified impact on school budgets and leave our rural schools with fewer resources to educate children and serve the community. Rural communities, children and families will be especially hard hit by a voucher system that would divert funding away from their public schools.”
Separately, BJC issued a resource urging voters to contact or even engage their U.S. senators to oppose the legislation and specifically the voucher system.
“What’s at stake are our public schools (which serve 90% of America’s students), our religious freedom, and the integrity of a government that serves the common good — not just the wealthy few,” the email warned.
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