Contact Your Legislators And Say "NO" to the Newest Voucher Scheme
- Marianne Burke, PhD
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
Urgent Call to Action for Public Education Advocates
The push for K-12 private school vouchers continues to be a priority for the Trump administration and the majority party in Congress, despite voucher bills repeated past defeats and the objection to voucher programs by the majority of the public. But this time is different. Though voucher bills have been introduced, the most likely method for their passage is through the budget reconciliation bill, where a simple majority can permit a bill to pass, instead of requiring 60 votes in the Senate to pass a stand-alone bill.
It is clear that vouchers are part of the plan to dismantle the Department of Education (ED) and are the key to eliminating quality public education in the United States.
Although approval by Congress is needed to close down the ED, the Trump administration is forging ahead with the plan to give public school funding to states to be used for private school vouchers. The rationale of voucher supporters includes that it would give more education options to families, but the administration ignores the many negative aspects of school vouchers that have been detailed by 4 Public Education and others.
It has been shown that if the bills pass, the vouchers will land unequally across states and the country, with increased harm by voucher schemes to rural and low income communities than more urban and wealthy communities. There have been successful legal challenges to vouchers, based on the facts that they were more accessible and mostly used by wealthy families, which led to the defeat of state voucher programs, and a specific program from 2017 on which the current federal plan is based. The impact of funds being diverted away from public education will be felt in all communities, but students from low-income communities, rural communities, and communities of color, who rely more heavily on well-resourced local public schools, will be disproportionately harmed. Expected impacts of voucher schemes to all students include: reduced transparency and accountability, increased discrimination against students, increased food insecurity, reduced disability services for students, and defunded public schools which serve 90% of the population.
The Coalition for Public Education provided a fact sheet that details potential impacts of voucher programs. Also, experts from well respected institutes have shared their conclusions about the negative effects of voucher programs (eg. the Brookings Institute and the Economic Policy Institute). In the past, attempts to launch voucher programs have been defeated after the downsides of vouchers were revealed to the public (e.g., The Atlantic and National Public Radio). Yet here we are again fighting the same battle, with the challenge even harder this time because politicians are under extraordinary pressure to pass the Budget Reconciliation bill.
Reconciliation is used to quickly advance high-priority fiscal legislation and allows expedited consideration of components of the bill without it being subject to filibuster, where 60 votes are needed to pass a bill. Instead, only 51 votes are required to pass the bill in the Senate. This means it will take even more effort than in the past to keep voucher bills from passing in Congress.
Education experts encourage public school advocates to contact their legislators and urge them to vote against the Educational Choice for Children Act (H.R. 833 and S.292). There are two ways advocates can easily make this request of their legislators. The first is by calling and leaving a message for senators and representatives, asking them to vote NO on the Educational Choice for Children Act. The phone numbers of all senators and representatives can be found at this link. Remember to tell whoever takes your message that you are a constituent and give them your name and address.
The second way to advocate against these bills is by accessing this form that when filled out and submitted will automatically send a letter to all your legislators asking them to vote NO on these bills. Your legislators are identified by the tool using the address you add to the form.
It is urgent to get these requests to our legislators now because the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to begin reviewing the Reconciliation bill on Tuesday, May 13.
If you would like more information on the subject of school vouchers, please attend the Education Law Center Webinar on May 15: “Save neighborhood schools - Say NO to Private School Vouchers. Please Register here.
