Today, the AHA joined other members of the National Coalition for Public Education in voicing opposition to private school vouchers. The coalition submitted a letter expressing these views for the hearing, “Helping Students Succeed through the Power of School Choice,” to be held on February 2nd in the House Education Committee’s Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education.

Read the letter below or download a PDF version with footnotes here.

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The National Coalition for Public Education

February 1, 2017

The Honorable Todd Rokita
Chairman, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Education and Workforce Committee
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Jared Polis
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Education and Workforce Committee
U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515

Re: NCPE Opposes Private School Vouchers

Dear Chairman Rokita and Ranking Member Polis:

The 50 undersigned organizations submit this letter for the hearing “Helping Students Succeed through the Power of School Choice” to express our strong opposition to private school vouchers. Vouchers divert desperately-needed resources away from the public school system to fund the education of a few, select students, with limited, if any, real impact on student academic achievement. Instead of providing equal access to high quality education or setting high standards for accountability, voucher programs have proven ineffective, lack accountability to taxpayers, and deprive students of rights provided to public school students. Congress would better serve all children by using funds to make public schools stronger and safer than by creating a new voucher program.

Although promoted as “school choice,” private school vouchers do not provide real choice for students and parents. The “choice” in voucher programs actually lies with private schools, which may turn students away for a variety of reasons. In contrast, public schools are open to all.

Students with disabilities are particularly underserved by voucher programs. Private voucher schools do not adequately serve students with disabilities, often denying them admission or subjecting them to inappropriate or excessive suspensions or expulsions. They also generally do not provide them the same quality and quantity of services available to students in public schools, including those mandated under each student’s individualized education plan (IEP). For example, in D.C., a significant number of students who received a voucher had to reject their vouchers because they were unable to find a participating school that offered services for their learning or physical disability or other special needs.

Vouchers also fail to improve academic opportunities. Recent studies of both the Louisiana and Ohio voucher programs revealed that students who used vouchers actually performed worse on standardized tests than their peers who are not in the voucher programs. Multiple studies of the D.C., Milwaukee, and Cleveland school voucher programs revealed similar findings: students offered vouchers do not perform better in reading and math than students in public schools. In fact, the Department of Education studies of the D.C. voucher program show that students participating in the program are actually less likely to have access to ESL programs, learning support and special needs programs, tutors, counselors, cafeterias, and nurse’s offices than students not in the program.

Moreover, voucher programs offer little accountability to taxpayers. Private school voucher programs usually do not require participating private schools to comply with the same teacher standards, curriculum, reporting, and testing requirements as public schools. And, private schools that receive voucher students do not adhere to all federal civil rights laws including those in Title IX, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and ESSA, religious freedom protections provided under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and public accountability standards that all public schools must meet.

Finally, vouchers violate religious liberty by funding primarily religious schools. One of the most dearly held principles of religious liberty is that government should not compel any citizen to furnish funds in support of a religion with which he or she disagrees, or even a religion with which he or she does agree. Voucher programs, however, violate that central tenet: they use taxpayer money to fund primarily religious education. Parents certainly may choose such an education for their children, but no taxpayer should be required to pay for another‘s religious education.

For these reasons and more, we oppose private school vouchers. Congress should ensure that public dollars remain invested in public schools for the benefit of all students.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.

Sincerely,

AASA: The School Superintendents Association
African American Ministers In Action
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
American Atheists
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Federation of Labor-Congress of industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
American Federation of School Administrators
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
American Humanist Association
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)
Americans for Religious Liberty
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Anti-Defamation League
Association of Education Service Agencies
Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO)
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty
Center for Inquiry
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Council of Administrators of Special Education
Council for Exceptional Children
Council of the Great City Schools
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
Disciples Justice Action Network
Equal Partners in Faith
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Institute for Science and Human Values
Interfaith Alliance
League of United Latin American Citizens
National Alliance of Black School Educators
NAACP
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Federally Impacted Schools
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Black Justice Coalition
National Center for Learning Disabilities
National Council of Jewish Women
National Disability Rights Network
National Education Association
National Organization for Women
National PTA
National Rural Education Advocacy Collaborative
National Rural Education Association
People For the American Way
School Social Work Association of America
Secular Coalition for America
Texas Freedom Network
Union for Reform Judaism