Oh great, we’re doing school vouchers again
Republicans are proposing a federal voucher program, where your federal tax dollars could go to pay for someone else’s kid to go to a private religious school. Sure, that might seem like a violation of church and state to you, but when Republicans invoke the magic words, “school choice,” that tiny constitutional problem is just supposed to disappear.
Lots of conservatives love voucher programs. Not just because it means that tax dollars get funneled to Christian schools, but also because voucher programs hurt public schools. They drain critical funding from the public system, a problem that is particularly acute in rural communities where public schools rely heavily on state funding. That’s why even some conservatives don’t back vouchers.
While several states already have voucher programs, this would be the first federal one. And defying all principles of federalism, it would even foist vouchers on states that don’t have them and don’t want them. The voucher program would work similarly to existing state ones, giving parents voucher funds to send their children to private schools or homeschool them.
The GOP proposal would set aside $5 billion annually for four years. However, the way things have played out in states with vouchers, that will likely not be nearly enough. When Arizona launched its voucher program, it estimated spending $65 million in one year. The cost ballooned to $332 million for just one single state for that single year.
Vouchers would be funded by a Rube Goldberg contraption that somewhat obscures the fact that tax dollars will be going to places like religious schools that discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. Private citizens would make donations to a charitable Scholarship Granting Organization. Then, the federal government would give donors a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. So, no matter how you slice it, the federal government is proposing $5 billion less in tax revenue per year, instead diverting that revenue to private schools.
Carl Davis, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told NPR that the dollar-for-dollar match was “about three times as generous as what you’re gonna get from donating to a children’s hospital or a veteran’s group or any other cause.” House Republicans didn’t invent this arrangement, as SGOs already exist in some voucher states, albeit with less generous tax breaks.
Even if you are perfectly comfortable with the erosion of separation of church and state that vouchers represent, there is the problem that they are an expensive solution in search of a problem. Most people who use vouchers already have their children in private schools. In Arkansas, 95% of students with vouchers weren’t coming from public schools. In Arizona, 71% were already homeschooled or at a private school. Thus, vouchers just function as a wealth transfer mechanism rather than their much-ballyhooed assertion that school choice will help poorer students.
The federal voucher proposal gives the game away here, as parents are eligible for vouchers if they earn less than triple the gross median income for their area. In some parts of the country, people earning $300,000 would still qualify for voucher assistance. Thus, vouchers just function as a wealth transfer mechanism rather than their much-ballyhooed assertion that school choice will help poorer students.
Related | What an unregulated school voucher program looks like
So let’s say you manage to set aside the constitutional concerns and are fine with a giveaway to people who don’t need it. You’re still stuck with the fact that vouchers do not remotely achieve their alleged goal of improving education outcomes.
You’re also stuck with the fact that private schools are not bound to provide many of the services public schools are; They don’t have to provide special education resources, but the law then requires the public school in the area to provide those services to children in private schools. Religious schools have even fewer restrictions, and are exempt from nearly all Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.
Some of this voucher fever may shortly become unnecessary. The conservatives on the Supreme Court appear ready to rule that an Oklahoma public charter school run by a Catholic diocese is just fine and dandy, no separation of church and state needed. Your tax dollars at work, regrettably.