An aggressive Republican campaign to pump hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into private education is continuing across the country, even after voters in three states rejected the idea.
Teacher union leaders are scrambling to beat back new school choice bills in state legislatures — measures they believe decimate funding for public schools.
They’re also organizing resistance to federal private school tax credit legislation endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump that has a path to approval in a Republican-controlled Congress.
That lopsided defeat for private school choice held throughout Kentucky’s seven biggest counties (five of which backed Trump) and its most rural areas.
Doug Burgum, who has since been nominated by Trump to be interior secretary, vetoed a private school tuition subsidy bill.
Even though voters in three states rejected the idea, Republicans are still waging a vigorous campaign to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on private education nationwide.
A universal school voucher program is set to be discussed by Texas lawmakers next year, after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s savage campaign to remove Republican lawmakers who obstructed his top priority. Republican Governor of Tennessee. After a school choice bill failed last year due to opposition from rural lawmakers, Bill Lee and state legislative leaders have already reintroduced it to offer private education scholarships to thousands of students.
And this month, Republicans in North Carolina overrode the outgoing Democratic governor using the remaining days of their legislative supermajority in the state House. The bill that would have added up to half a billion dollars in new yearly funding to a private school scholarship program with tens of thousands of students waiting to apply was vetoed by Roy Cooper.
Regarding the state’s expanding initiative, Tim Moore, the speaker of the North Carolina House and a representative-elect, stated, “It went over budget because so many families chose to take advantage of this.”. The popularity of the program is evident from that alone. “.”.
Voter dissatisfaction, labor organizations, and legislative will are at odds over a policy trend that has already swept across a large portion of the nation. Teacher union leaders are frantically trying to stop new school choice bills in state legislatures because they feel that they will severely reduce public school funding. Moreover, they are coordinating opposition to federal legislation on private school tax credits, which President-elect Donald Trump has supported and which has a chance of passing in a Congress controlled by Republicans.
Unions are hoping to emulate a strategy that mobilized voters in November. 5 to deny a bid to authorize public funding for private education in Kentucky, repeal a significant part of a Nebraska school voucher law, and reject a measure that would have established a constitutional right to school choice in Colorado.
“We know we can apply the lessons we learned from very different states in the battles that lie ahead,” stated Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association. “You can be sure that we’ll remind those elected officials that this is what the people said.”. You risk dying if you ignore it. “”.
Kentucky’s election results demonstrate the division among voters on the matter. Although nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters supported Trump, almost the same percentage opposed a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have permitted lawmakers to use public funds to support private schools.
The seven largest counties in Kentucky—five of which supported Trump—as well as the state’s most rural regions saw a resounding defeat for private school choice. For instance, in rural Clay County, about 90% of voters supported Trump, whereas 66% were against the private school proposal.
Frederick Hess, the director of education at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said, “It’s really amazing to me how much the choice community has minimized this.”. “I think you have to wonder what’s going on when half of those voters are rejecting the choice referendums and Trump is winning Kentucky by a margin of plus 30 or 35. “.”.
In recent years, policies that use taxpayer funds to help families pay for private tuition, homeschooling, and other educational expenses have become more and more common across the nation.
By mid-year, at least thirteen states had implemented so-called education savings account programs, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures accounting of one common program type. This means that more than 30 states have implemented some form of school choice program. By making the program accessible to all families in the state, regardless of income, Arizona set a new benchmark for its program in 2022, and as a result, almost one in 20 students now participate.
There is still opportunity for improvement, though, and Texas is set to become the largest battlefield.
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos founded the American Federation for Children, a school choice group that heavily invests in state legislative races. The group claimed to have spent over $8 million in the Texas primary and general elections to secure a voucher-friendly state House majority in favor of what may eventually grow to be the largest statewide school choice program in the country.
Governor Abbott of Texas claims that he now has 79 votes in the state House in favor of a voucher bill—three more than is necessary for legislation to be approved in that chamber.
At a news conference held at a Christian private school following the election, Abbott boasted of a “tidal wave of support” for his endorsed House candidates, saying, “I made sure that we would elect Republicans to the Texas House of Representatives in sufficient numbers to be able to pass a school choice plan just like the Texas Senate has passed many times.”.
Lt. Gov. The president of the Texas Senate, Dan Patrick, urged Abbott to make school choice legislation a top priority for the upcoming year. This would enable lawmakers to approve the bill within the first 60 days of the state’s upcoming legislative session.
Unions are pledging to oppose the proposal from Texas.
Pringle told reporters earlier this month that “we’ll be using every tool that we have available to us,” including legal challenges, to thwart the Texas effort. We’ve already fought this battle in Texas, and we’ll keep fighting it.
The governor of Tennessee and Republican lawmakers are going to reexamine a statewide voucher proposal that was unsuccessful earlier this year.
This time, bicameral bills that authorize up to 20,000 tuition scholarships for private schools that are funded by the public also include potential sweeteners to entice potential opponents, like tax breaks to support public school construction projects and $2,000 bonuses for public school teachers.
More than a year after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum vetoed a bill that would have provided tuition subsidies for private schools. Since then, Trump has nominated him to be the interior secretary.
There is minimal proof that Republicans are reevaluating their support for voucher program expansion as a result of the referendum defeats.
The conservative Thomas B. Thomas party’s president, Michael Petrilli, stated that it’s crucial to avoid overinterpreting the referendum results. Fordham University. When voting on these issues in a direct democracy, it’s easy to demonize the issue because teacher unions are a very powerful political machine. “.”.
Politicians may be overestimating their political support, according to Petrilli, a school choice advocate who opposes subsidizing wealthy households through extensive voucher programs, since these programs don’t have much to offer suburban or rural households that may be satisfied with their local schools or have no other choice.
According to him, “the kiss of death in these debates is to play into the mindset that this is somehow about hurting public education.”. Writing large checks to affluent families is going to enrage a lot of people, and there might be a serious backlash. “.”.
Republican lawmakers continue to have an advantage in states like North Carolina where voters are unable to express their opinions through ballot box referendums, even in the face of anti-voucher sentiment at the polls.
Moore described the system in North Carolina as follows: “People go and vote for their legislators, and the legislators enact policies.”. Additionally, I would say that a major theme of many campaigns was educational access, and as a result, Republicans were able to maintain very comfortable majorities. “”.
