Freedom From Religion Foundation Senior Policy Counsel Ryan Jayne has had a memorable op-ed published on Memorial Day in FFRF’s hometown newspaper dissecting school vouchers.
“As Congress considered a federal voucher scheme as part of its budget reconciliation package, we should carefully reflect on whether Wisconsin’s sweeping voucher programs have benefited students,” Jayne writes. “And the simple, honest answer is that they have not.”
Jayne explains how the program has done more harm than good for public schools in the state:
Despite promises of choice and competition, voucher programs have repeatedly failed to demonstrate academic improvements for students. Numerous studies across the country — including those evaluating Wisconsin’s own program — show no clear academic benefit for voucher students when compared to their peers in public schools. And because voucher schools are not held to the same transparency and accountability standards, it’s difficult to even know how well they’re serving students. This lack of oversight opens the door to mismanagement and even fraud.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s public schools are being shortchanged. Special education funding is a glaring example. Private voucher schools are now getting reimbursed by taxpayers for 90 percent of their special education costs. Public schools, by contrast, are only reimbursed 34 percent. This isn’t just unfair; it’s indefensible.
What’s worse, this inequity persists despite the fact that Wisconsin is sitting on a multibillion-dollar state surplus. Lawmakers could choose to fully fund our public schools, ensuring smaller class sizes, better teacher pay and stronger support services. Instead, they are choosing to bankroll private schools, many of which can legally discriminate against students based on religion, disability status and more.
These trends are especially troubling given the roots of voucher programs. Historically, vouchers were born out of resistance to school desegregation. After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, some districts closed public schools entirely and issued vouchers so that white students could attend segregated private schools. And today, Wisconsin schools have the largest disparity between test scores of white and Black students. Vouchers only exacerbate this divide.
Finally, the entire premise of “school choice” is a mirage. The lion’s share of voucher funds pay for the tuition of children who would have gone to private schools anyway. This is especially true after vouchers become “universal,” a trend all over the country to remove voucher eligibility requirements entirely. Further, many students couldn’t transfer to a private school even if they wanted to. Students in rural areas typically have no access to private schools.
Private schools are allowed to discriminate against students based on race, religion and disability. Religious schools are also exempt from Title IX, allowing discrimination if complying with the law would be inconsistent with the religious tenets of the organization.
Jayne finishes the piece with a message against federal vouchers: “Meanwhile, Congress should learn from state mistakes and refuse to enact a national voucher scheme. Federal support for public education is already in serious jeopardy, and a new voucher system would only shift more burden onto states and local governments, leaving the vast majority of Americans worse off.”
You can read the full op-ed here.
This column is part of FFRF’s initiative to engage with pertinent national and state issues and spread the messages of freethought and nontheism to a broader audience.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., has over 42,000 nonreligious members and several chapters all over the country, including more than 1,600 members and a chapter in Wisconsin. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
