Federal Voucher System -- Like Florida's -- Would Divert Funding to Private Schools and Home-Schoolers
The reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives includes a federal tax credit voucher that would provide taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay for tuition at private schools and for home-schooled students. This $5-billion tax credit would divert funding that would otherwise go into federal coffers. This part of the reconciliation bill would make vouchers available to students in every state, even in those states where voters have opposed them like Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska, most recently.
Florida has lessons to offer about vouchers. Congress should learn from the state as the cautionary tale that it is and act to preserve and support public education for all students by rejecting the House’s proposal.
Beginning in the FY 2023-24 school year, vouchers were made available to all Florida students eligible to attend public school, regardless of income. Proponents touted the program as a remedy for students in underperforming schools that allows money to follow the child from public schools to private schools. However, in Florida, 69 percent of new voucher applicants are students who were never in public schools. The money cannot follow these students to private schools, because they were never there to begin with. Home-school and private school vouchers drain funding from public education for the overwhelming majority of students that choose public schools.
Florida has lessons to offer about vouchers. Congress should learn from the state as the cautionary tale that it is and act to preserve and support public education for all students by rejecting the House’s proposal.
https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/federal-voucher-system-would-divert-funding-to-private-schools-and-home-schoolers
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