Category Archives: Vouchers

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Vouchers Gone Wrong

A story out of Florida should give pause to those who think public money should just “follow the child” to whatever school or education experiment is out there:

The rapid expansion of the state’s School Choice scholarship program burrowed a $47 million hole in the Florida Department of Education’s budget and left public and private schools complaining they aren’t getting properly paid.

Money problems that arose during the 2024-2025 school year can largely be attributed to the mobility that students enjoy to shift from public to private or to home education freely, said Adam Emerson, director of the Department of Education Office of School Choice.

In short: Both public and private schools aren’t being paid in a timely fashion for the students in their care.

Voucher madness is unsustainable.

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Trump Budget Leaves Families Hungry

Voucher Fraud in Arizona

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On The Danger of Trump’s Vouchers

Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” included a federal school voucher scheme. Not only will it cost taxpayers billions, but it will also be harmful to states.

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) released a brief explaining the potential impact of these vouchers.

In a summary explainer, NEPC notes:

NEPC director and University of Colorado Boulder professor emeritus Kevin Welner cautions governors that the promised state flexibility under the new federal “scholarship” program is unlikely to materialize, leaving states vulnerable to federal overreach and harmful voucher expansion.

Ultimately, unless states are guaranteed full flexibility to protect their students and taxpayers, opting in would mean ceding state authority to Washington and exposing students to the well-documented harms of today’s voucher programs.

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Vacations Paid for By School Vouchers

Trump Budget Cuts Millions from TN Schools

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Doubling Down on a Bad Idea

Lee, Sexton want to expand state’s private school coupon scheme

Tennessee’s school voucher program is already taking a $144 million chunk out of the state budget. When fully implemented, the cost is expected to exceed $1 billion annually.

Vouchers are expensive – and undermine local public schools. Research consistently suggests vouchers do not improve student outcomes – and, sometimes, actually lead to a decline.

Expensive. Hurting local communities. Failing to help students.

That’s the program Gov. Lee wants to expand. And House Speaker Cameron Sexton is cheering him on, calling for at least a doubling of the voucher scheme in the upcoming legislative session.

The governor added that because of the large number of applications, he hopes to persuade the legislature to “provide more scholarships to Tennessee families” when lawmakers return for the 2026 session.

Lee, whose term runs out in January 2027, wasn’t specific about how much he would like to see the program expand. But Sexton’s spokesperson, Connor Grady, said the speaker is committed to “at least doubling” the number of available vouchers to meet student demand, Chalkbeat reported.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Trump Administration Decimates Hunger Relief Programs

Vouchers: Expensive and Ineffective

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Vouchers Destroy Local Schools

When we look at Arizona, we get a preview of what an ESA voucher scheme (like the one we have in Tennessee) does to local schools.

Instead of investing in local public schools to meet students’ needs and ward off school closures to ensure equal access to quality neighborhood schools, Republican state lawmakers voted to force through universal ESA vouchers, which are now draining a massive $1 billion a year to instead pay for private, for-profit models that pick and choose students.

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Trump Budget Puts Education Programs At Risk

Is the Future a School Without Teachers?

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Fraudsters Love Vouchers

Will Arizona-style voucher fraud come to Tennessee?

Tennessee now has a big, universal school voucher scheme.

ESAs, they’re called.

And, in other states, similar programs have been susceptible to fraud.

If you don’t live in Arizona or have any kids going to school there, you can still get access to that state’s voucher funds.

A man from Florida gained access to the state’s ESA voucher funds by indicating he had children in school in the state. Of course, he didn’t – these ghost kids, though, netted him as much as 25,000.

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Kids Go Hungry in Trump’s America

An Extreme Agenda for Schools

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Conservatives Push Back on Trump’s Voucher Scheme

The Big, Terrible Bill included lots not to like, including the creation of a federal school voucher program.

While conservatives tend to be proponents of state-level voucher schemes, some are raising concerns over the Trump scheme:

Though attractive on the surface, this generous credit effectively removes the burden of K-12 funding from the state and transfers it to private SGOs. This undermines states like North Carolina, who did the difficult work of reforming their education funding model to ensure dollars follow the student.

As we saw in the last administration, given enough leverage, the federal government will always try to turn funding into a cudgel to promote its social policy goals.

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Arizona Bankrolls Extreme Education Agenda

Trump Scheme Puts Key School Programs At Risk

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It Just Keeps Getting Worse

The scandal that is Arizona’s school voucher scheme keeps getting worse.

It’s not enough that an investigation revealed families using voucher funds to pay for vacations. Now, there’s evidence the voucher money was spent on diamond rings, necklaces, and iPhones.

12 News’ Craig Harris requested reports of all of the reimbursements being approved by Supt. Horne’s ADE, and the laundry list of fraud, waste, and abuse is shocking. The investigation found that private school parents using ESA vouchers for their kids “bought diamond rings and necklaces, Kenmore appliances, and even lingerie with education tax dollars… more than 200 Apple iPhones

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Betting on Vouchers in Pennsylvania

Trump Budget Cuts Funds for TN Schools

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Trump’s Private School Coupon Scheme

TN will almost certainly opt in

Yes, there’s a federal school voucher scheme.

Yes, it’s a tax giveaway to the rich.

Yes, it also means private school coupons for wealthy families.

States will have to opt in so residents can access the federal coupons.

While there are between 7-10 states unlikely to opt in, Tennessee joins the majority of states likely to participate. Of course, the Volunteer State already has its own private school coupon plan – one that will cost state taxpayers more than $140 million this year alone.

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Using Vouchers to Pay for Vacations

TN Schools Lose in Trump Education Budget

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Arizona Voucher Vacations

As Tennessee embarks on a school voucher misadventure, it is important to look at other states with universal voucher schemes to see how they are (not) working.

Today, we turn to Arizona. There, voucher recipients are using tax dollars to fund family vacations – Disney, Sea World, etc. – there’s even a Facebook group where users discuss how to game the system to finance vacations.

As 12News points out, most tickets to San Diego attractions or others outside of Arizona are likely to get approved regardless of cost — at least up to $2,000. Why? Supt. Tom Horne’s ADE implemented a new policy in December that all expenses less than $2,000 are approved automatically, without any review, with the plan to audit later.

Will Tennessee taxpayers end up on the hook for trips to Dollywood or Panama City Beach?

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Trump vs. Tennessee Schools

Bill Lee Takes a Stand Against Feeding Kids

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Tennessee, Indiana, and Voucher Math

An interesting tidbit from The Education Report about Indiana’s voucher program and the possible implications for Tennessee:

Tennessee starts a universal school voucher plan in the 2025-2026 school year. That program is already at capacity in terms of the number of applicants. All 20,000 slots will be taken.

If growth of the program tracks Indiana, that would mean that by 2035, Tennessee will be spending more than $1.4 billion on private school coupons.

Which brings us to the second big takeaway: These vouchers are just creating a discount for wealthy families – they are not a pathway for low- and middle-income families to gain access to private school education.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Kentucky’s School Funding Shortfall

Lee’s Lamentable Legacy