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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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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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

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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.”

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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

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A National School Voucher Scheme?

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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.

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National Voucher Madness

House Republicans are not only busy cutting Medicaid, but also working on dismantling American public education while giving the very wealthy a nice tax break.

Yes, a national school voucher scam – supported by President Trump and backed by his former Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos – is taking shape as part of the current budget wrangling.

Here’s what one group that analyzed the bill said:

“. . . we estimate that this tax avoidance maneuver would deprive the federal government and state governments of more than $2 billion in capital gains tax revenue over the next decade. This would come on top of the roughly $21.5 billion cost of the tax credit itself, bringing the net total revenue loss to over $23.6 billion.

If you wanted to undermine public education – even in states like Kentucky with no vouchers or charter schools – this would be the way to do it.

As an example, Tennessee public school districts are estimated to lose more than $50 million in state investment in year one of the state’s new, universal school voucher scheme.

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

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Trump seeks to voucherize American education

Yes, getting rid of or partially dismantling or otherwise destroying the core functions of the U.S. Department of Education is bad.

Also bad: A national school voucher scam. But, of course, that’s just what Donald Trump wants:

Josh Cowen, in his newsletter for Public Funds for Public Schools, highlighted the voucher threat:

Finally, we’re all still waiting to see what happens with the so-called Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA)—aka the tax shelter for the wealthy that’s also a federal voucher scheme intended to ram vouchers into every state—even those that don’t want it. Those of us with our ear to the ground have heard conflicting things: maybe it will make it into the federal reconciliation process (where it would need only a simple GOP majority to pass) or maybe it’ll come up for a vote later in the year. One thing we know is that Betsy DeVos’s group is continuing to make this a top priority, so it’s something to keep monitoring closely.


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North Dakota Lawmakers Kill Expensive Voucher Bill

Legislators in North Dakota soundly rejected an attempt to provide private school discount coupons – school vouchers – to families already using private schools.

The North Dakota Monitor reports:

The North Dakota House overwhelmingly rejected an Education Savings Account bill Thursday night, a day after the governor vetoed a similar bill.

House members voted 78-14 against Senate Bill 2400, which sought to provide private school vouchers plus Education Savings Accounts for public school and homeschooled students.

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

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Vouchers Rejected in Utah, Missouri

As Tennessee moves forward with expensive voucher scheme, other states are rejected the bad idea

The effort to divert public funds to unaccountable private schools ran into roadblocks in Missouri and Utah last week.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s plan to rapidly enlarge a scholarship program for private and religious schools with an infusion of state tax funds was cut out of the budget Wednesday as the Senate Appropriations Committee finished revising spending plans for the coming year.

The Republican Senator who stripped the voucher funding said public schools should be the state’s top funding priority.

In Utah, a judge came to the rescue of the state’s students:

Utah’s $100 million school voucher program violates the state’s constitution, a judge ruled Friday.

“[Because] the Program is a legislatively created, publicly funded education program aimed at elementary and secondary education, it must satisfy the constitutional requirements applicable to the ‘public education system’ set forth in the Utah Constitution,” Third District Judge Laura Scott wrote in her ruling. “The Program is not ‘open to all children of the state.’”

The judge said public education funds in Utah must be used to support schools that accept all students – and that private schools may restrict admission, so cannot be recipients of public education dollars.

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