Double Down On The Fight Against School Vouchers And Tax Credit Schemes That Defund American Public Education

WHEREAS, a free public education for all is perhaps the singular defining virtue of our American society; and vouchers pose a real threat, not just to the soul of public education, but to the very existence of public education itself; and

WHEREAS, American public education is the foundation of our democracy where all children are accepted, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability or economic status; and

WHEREAS, in recent years, the push to divert public dollars to private schools has intensified across the country through vouchers, K-12 "savings accounts," and insidious schemes that provide lucrative tax credits for donations that fund scholarships to private schools; and

WHEREAS, voucher proponents pushed through new voucher programs in seven states in 2023 and expanded voucher programs in nine others;[1] and

WHEREAS, in state^[2] after^[3] state^[4], voucher programs have been shown to exceed cost projections and strip funding from our already underfunded school systems, with one analysis finding that $1.3 billion in taxpayer funds were diverted to school vouchers in the 2022-23 school year, amounting to 10 percent[5] of the overall funding the state earmarked for public school districts that year; and

WHEREAS, school privatization proponents, knowing that the term “voucher” has become toxic for parents, have taken to creating new terms for their school privatization schemes, calling them “tuition tax credits,” “opportunity scholarships” and “education savings accounts” in a desperate attempt to rebrand unpopular ideas, going so far as to label state legislation with shamelessly disingenuous names like “Family Empowerment Scholarship Program” (Florida) and “Invest in Kids” (Illinois); and

WHEREAS, multiple studies[6] have shown[7] that voucher programs[8] often subsidize students from wealthy families already attending private schools. For example, recent data shows that poor and minority children are not getting such scholarships in the amounts advocates claim. In Iowa and Illinois, two-thirds of voucher recipients were already enrolled in private schools; in Cleveland, minority students received merely 7 percent of the scholarships; and

WHEREAS, voucher programs have been shown to increase[9] school[10] segregation,[11] with the National Education Policy Center reporting that "Vouchers Increase Segregation and Offer Benefits to the Few;"[12] and

WHEREAS, private schools are not required to disclose how they spend the funds they receive, measure their academic achievement, make their academic standards public, hold public meetings, or educate children with disabilities; and

WHEREAS, voucher-funded schools strip students of important rights, including the First Amendment rights, services and protections they receive in public schools, going so far as to refuse to offer services to students with special needs and English language learners; and

WHEREAS, vouchers[13] are[14] going[15] to[16] private[17] schools[18] that[19] do not accept LGBTQIA+ students or teachers and worse. According to GLSEN’s National School Climate Survey, "private religious schools are often where LGBTQ+ students face the most significant challenges. LGBTQ+ students attending private religious schools experience more discrimination than LGBTQ+ students at any other type of school and have the least access to the essential supports for their well-being and academic achievement. Thus, the majority of the private schools benefiting from private school programs are also the school settings where LGBTQ+ students are the least likely to be able to learn and thrive"; and

WHEREAS, according to the National Coalition for Public Education, vouchers cause a decline in academic achievement that rivals or even exceeds those caused by natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic.[20] For example, the decline in test scores for Louisiana students who accepted vouchers exceeded the declines experienced by students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and the negative effect of Ohio’s voucher program on math scores was almost double that of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on learning loss; and

WHEREAS, in 2022, the national AFL-CIO passed a resolution vowing to protect and defend public schools from attacks like private school vouchers and voucher-like schemes:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will publicly and powerfully oppose the diversion of public funds to any discriminatory voucher or tax credit program, federal or state, that reduces public financial support to our cherished public schools; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will educate our members about voucher schemes and assist our affiliates in lobbying state governments, and will support affiliated unions in opposing school vouchers and voucher-like programs; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and our affiliates will partner with like-minded community organizations, parent organizations and labor organizations to support fully funded public schools.