Category Archives: Vouchers

Posted on by

A Note on Federal Vouchers

A pair of stories in The Education Report highlight the unfortunate reality of a federal school voucher scheme brought about by the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

Robert Kim, Executive Director of Education Law Center:

“Education has not been spared in this bloodbath. This legislation establishes a federal tax credit school voucher scheme with no spending cap. Study after study shows that vouchers sweep aside civil rights protections, support segregation, decimate public school budgets, and do not improve student outcomes. Vouchers undermine public education, the cornerstone of our democracy, and have no place in federal policy.”

Senate version, House version – it’s all quite bad:

The federal voucher is proposed as a tax credit scholarship, meaning that every dollar taxpayers put into the voucher program is a dollar of revenue the federal government does not collect (and for which each donor gets a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, a deal unlike any available for other donation credits). The House version has a cap on the amount of tax revenue the government will give up; the Senate version has no such cap.

pexels-photo-3483098.jpeg
Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com on Pexels.com

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

Kentucky’s School Funding Shortfall

How School Vouchers Eat State Budgets

Posted on by

Why Bother Tracking Vouchers?

The State of Tennessee has said it will not keep track of whether recipients of the state’s new, universal school vouchers are currently enrolled in private schools. In other states (like Arizona), as many as 75% of school voucher recipients were already enrolled in private schools BEFORE receiving a state-funded discount coupon.

These numbers would indicate that vouchers are not so much about school choice as they are about subsidizing private schools – and, ultimately, privatizing the delivery of public education.

More from Chalkbeat:

As Tennessee lawmakers debated a new universal voucher program earlier this year, one financial analysis projected that 65% of vouchers would go to students already enrolled in private schools.

Now, it will be impossible to determine whether that projection was accurate.

Tennessee families do not have to report their previous school enrollment in the new statewide voucher program application, a gap that will leave Tennesseans in the dark about whether the program will significantly expand private school access for public school students or send millions in public funds to students already enrolled in private schools.

The expected cost of the state’s voucher program at full implementation exceeds $1 billion. If fiscal analysts and trends in other states are an accurate predictor, Tennessee will essentially be funding an entirely separate school system – in addition to the woefully underfunded public K-12 system. Tennessee currently ranks last among Southeastern states in investment in public schools.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

How School Vouchers Destroy State Budgets

Kentucky’s Teacher Pension Problem

MORE TENNESSEE NEWS

Faith Leaders Seek Justice, Fairness for Immigrants

Tennessee Doctors Call on Blackburn, Hagerty to Oppose Devastating Budget Moves

Posted on by

Grundy County Says “NO” to Teacher Bonuses

One Tennessee school district is leaving free money for teacher pay on the table. The Grundy County School Board has decided not to accept the state’s $2000 bonus for teachers that was provided as part of the universal school voucher bill that passed this year.

Chattanooga’s NewsChannel9 has more:

“. . . the Grundy County school board did not approve thousands of dollars from the state for teacher bonuses.

Those $2,000 bonuses were tied to the Education Freedom Act and school vouchers.

After the votes failed last week, one board member said he voted against the bonuses because he believes vouchers are wrong.

But another board member said not accepting that money only hurts the county, no matter what strings may be attached.

The strings included passing a supportive resolution to accept the funds that some perceived as a tacit endorsement of Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher scheme.

crop man getting dollars from wallet
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

Kentucky Faces School Funding Shortfall

How Vouchers Eat State Budgets

MORE TENNESSEE NEWS

TN Pastors Challenge Anti-Immigrant Law

A Call to Reject the “Big, Beautiful Bill”

Posted on by

Defending Public Education in Mississippi

School privatizers are persistent – they work and work and work to obtain access to public funds. They work to reduce accountability. They work to profit from what should be a public good.

Two public education advocates share their story of fighting (and so far, winning) for public schools in Mississippi:

Defeating vouchers is a priority because vouchers provide a direct funding stream to private schools that takes funding away from our public schools. Private schools are not designed to be a public good. They want to be able to select the students that they educate and are not open to all students. Because they have a selective admission process, they can refuse any child for any reason. And they operate outside of the public eye. We don’t know what the standards are that they are purporting to meet. We don’t have any accountability for the quality of education that they are providing.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

A Federal School Voucher Scheme

Bill Lee Helps TN Win Race to the Bottom

Posted on by

Voucher Wisdom from Utah

The decision by a Utah judge that a school voucher scheme violates that state’s constitution is a win for defenders of public education.

“This decision protects the integrity of public education, ensuring critical funding remains in schools that serve 90% of Utah’s children and prioritize equitable, inclusive opportunities for every student to succeed,” said the Utah Education Association. “It reinforces the belief that public education is a cornerstone of opportunity for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances.”

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

The Federal School Voucher Scheme

Hungry Kids, Underfunded Schools

Posted on by

Slater Promotes Voucher Coupon Scheme

Sumner lawmaker touts plan that would undermine the Sumner County Schools in his district

State Rep. William Slater who represents Trousdale County and part of Sumner County in the General Assembly, is actively promoting a school voucher scheme that could have devastating consequences for the public schools in his area.

Slater voted for the scheme – as did all of the representatives of Sumner County’s legislative delegation.

Now, the former headmaster of Hendersonville Christian Academy is actively seeking applicants to take public money to enrich private schools and their operators. The plan would also essentially provide a discount coupon to families already sending students to private schools.

State Rep. William Slater, R-Gallatin, is encouraging interested families in Trousdale and Sumner counties to apply for Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS) beginning May 15.

All Tennessee students can apply for the program, which provides a $7,295 scholarship to attend a private school that will best fit a child’s needs. Families are encouraged to apply early and have all necessary documents and information readily available.

In other states, vouchers have wrecked state and local budgets, resulted in property tax increases, and failed to improve student achievement.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

Robbing Farmers, Schools, and Food Banks

Bill Lee Never Fails to Disappoint

Posted on by

An Explosive Voucher Scheme

State budget set to take a hit from rapid private school coupon scam

This blog takes a look at the numbers when it comes to Tennessee’s expanded school voucher scheme – set to go universal in the upcoming academic year.

Applications continue to flow in for Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship program. The TDOE has released data showing that the number of scholarships applied for by families with a qualified income was equal to those for by parents with no economic restrictions.

As of the beginning of this week, the department has received a total of 38,160 applications:

  • 18,852 applications for qualified income scholarships.
  • 19,308 applications for universal scholarships.
  • Applications have been received from more than 300 zip codes across the state.
  • An average of 2,935 applications per grade level have been submitted for students entering Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Critics of the program continue to fire away even as applications increase. According to Sam Stockard at the Tennessee Lookout, the program is slated to cost about $400 million next year and escalate to $1.1 billion in five years. Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons says, calling Gov. Lee’s program “a scam that will harm students, de-fund public education, and expedite our state’s impending budget crisis.”

bitcoins and u s dollar bills
Photo by David McBee on Pexels.com

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

TN “Wins” Race to the Bottom on School Funding

Vouchers Kill Local Public Schools

Posted on by

TN Vouchers: Funding Discrimination

Tennessee’s school voucher scheme is set to go universal in the 2025-26 school year.

It’s bad news for the state budget – and for local schools.

It will also likely lead to bad outcomes for kids.

And not just on the academic side.

Peter Greene writes about the potential for taxpayer-funded discrimination.

This is what vouchers are about–defunding a system that has an obligation to serve all students and giving that money to a system that can discriminate against whoever for whatever reason. Operate that private system if you feel you must, but do not fund it with public tax dollars. I hope Tennessee Christian decides not to accept vouchers. Better for them, and better for the taxpayers of Tennessee.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

Robbing Food Banks and School Lunches

Trump Cozies Up to Christian Nationalists

Posted on by

What’s Eating the Budget?

It’s vouchers – thanks to Gov. Bill Lee

Bill Lee’s legacy will be the undoing of Tennessee’s public education system. First, through the ill-designed TISA formula and then by way of a universal school voucher scheme.

In fact, states with existing voucher programs are already reporting budget woes:

Stateline reports:

In submitting her updated budget proposal in March, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs lamented the rising costs of the state’s school vouchers program that directs public dollars to pay private school tuition.

Characterizing vouchers as an “entitlement program,” Hobbs said the state could spend more than $1 billion subsidizing private education in the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic governor said those expenses could crowd out other budget priorities, including disability programs and pay raises for firefighters and state troopers.

Tennessee’s voucher scheme will cost nearly $150 million in year one – and the cost of the private school coupon plan could balloon quickly.

Of course, by the time the voucher plan eats so many state dollars that other programs are cut, Lee will no longer be governor.

Still, when public education in the state suffocates under the weight of school vouchers, there is one man who should bear the brunt of the blame: Bill Lee.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

A National School Voucher Scheme?

A Legacy of Hungry Kids

Posted on by

Vouchers All Over

The incessant push to destroy public education

Over at The Education Report, I note that vouchers are not just a problem in Tennessee, they may soon be a national disaster:

From Arizona to DC, the agenda is becoming increasingly clear: privatizers are after our public schools, and they’re aiming to totally dismantle public education, replacing it with an unaccountable, voucherized, for-profit free-for-all that will undermine quality education for generations.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

Another Call for “One Big Test”

TN Winning Race to the Bottom