Raising tough questions about the end goal of school vouchers
The very first bill filed for the 2025 session of the Tennessee General Assembly is Gov. Bill Lee’s plan for universal school vouchers.
It’s been Lee’s goal since before he was elected to privatize Tennessee’s public schools.
So, what’s the goal of this wholesale transfer of public funds to private entities?
Carol Burris takes to The Progressive to offer a possible explanation:
The “school choice movement,” which Coulson’s documentary promoted, has always been a classic bait-and-switch swindle: Charter schools were the bait for vouchers, and vouchers the lure for public acceptance of market-based schooling. While narrow debates about accountability, taxpayer costs, and the public funding of religious schools raise important concerns, the gravest threat posed by the school choice movement is its ultimate objective: putting an end to public responsibility for education.
Burris notes that incoming President Trump appears to be on-board with this agenda:
The America First Policy Institute, where Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon serves as board chair, states in its recent policy agenda that “the authority for educating children rests with parents.” As public responsibility for schooling shifts to parents, educational subsidies will be gradually reduced until Friedman and Coulson’s dream of a fully for-profit marketplace that competes for students is achieved.
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