Nate Bowling is currently teaching abroad in Abu Dhabi, but he’s still following education issues back home. As part of a series of posts about what Trump II might bring, he included this look at vouchers.
Here Come the Vouchers
Because the federal government’s direct role in education policy is constrained, its real influence lies in funding decisions—or the threat of withholding funds. One area where the new administration plans to wield this stick aggressively is in pushing so-called “school choice” initiatives, especially vouchers. This is the loud and clear signal from Secretary of Education Designate and WWE magnate, Linda McMahon. are sold as a lifeline for low-income families stuck in “failing” public schools, but in reality, they’re a windfall for wealthy families. Every voucher campaign (see below) features earnest looking Black children sitting in classrooms. But the overwhelming majority of kids using vouchers (for example 61% in Indiana and 94% in West Virginia) are from affluent, white households.
Here’s how the hustle works: most vouchers don’t cover the full cost of private school tuition, so they’re useless for low income students. Families already paying for private education are the real winners, pocketing a taxpayer subsidy for an expense they were already shouldering. Vouchers effectively siphon money from public school budgets because of per pupil funding formulas. Public schools further suffer because as students leave, their fixed costs—salaries, utilities, maintenance—don’t shrink. The result? Already under-resourced schools are gutted further.
Then there’s the issue of who gets to participate. Private schools can—and often do—reject students with disabilities, behavioral challenges, or other needs, leaving public schools to serve the most vulnerable students with even fewer resources. Most private schools receiving voucher funds are religious institutions or “segregation academies” established to dodge integration after Brown v. Board of Education. This means taxpayers are funding a subsidy for the wealthy, for religious indoctrination, and for institutions rooted in the racist backlash to desegregation.
I say all of this as a teacher, for the last five years, at a private school where the tuition is the equivalent of a well-equipped Toyota Corolla. A voucher doesn’t make that level of tuition any more attainable for a working family, but it can knock the equivalent of a country club membership or a Rolex off the tuition bill of the wealthiest Americans.
Vouchers aren’t about expanding opportunity; they’re about entrenching privilege and diverting public dollars to private interests. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.