Republican-driven school voucher programs are bad

The voucher misconception, repeated in today’s @nytimes assumes most private schools are elite—and accept low-income kids with a voucher.

They don’t.

Wealthier families get rebates for elite schools they’re already in, and lower income kids get shoved into sub-prime options pic.twitter.com/Bxuu3lqyt9

— Josh Cowen (@joshcowenMSU) July 29, 2024

Another day, another news story: vouchers mostly go to kids already in private school.

The hit to state budgets and to public schools comes because taxpayers are now picking up the tab for choices previously made by the private sectorhttps://t.co/3uRyU9MMsw pic.twitter.com/u7Cu4il8ry

— Josh Cowen (@joshcowenMSU) June 17, 2024

Ohio vouchers now at nearly $1 billion, with new users overwhelmingly white families and kids already in private schools.https://t.co/teWR8ba5PQ pic.twitter.com/u4W9lEWHvN

— Josh Cowen (@joshcowenMSU) August 14, 2024

Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, has spent so much money paying private schoolers' tuition that it's now facing hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects https://t.co/E0SRB2IfZN

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 16, 2024

NC requires public school teachers to hold a license.

Durham, NC's Mt. Zion Christian Academy receives public $ for vouchers.

They require their teachers to demonstrate their relationship w/the Holy Spirit by speaking in tongues.

A license is optional. #nced #ncpol pic.twitter.com/G9IIkKmXbd

— Justin Parmenter (@JustinParmenter) July 8, 2024

No state has ever written a blank check to ensure an adequate public education for every student, but Arizona did write a blank check for its private school voucher program. Now a perverse set of incentives are draining AZ public education. https://t.co/gOACT8Cgug

— Derek W. Black (@DerekWBlack) July 8, 2024

The recent @CNN report on vouchers quotes an inside document from Betsy DeVos’s lobby group:

They’ve spent $250 million since 2013.

To get $25 billion in voucher and voucher like systems from taxpayers.

This spending vastly exceeds previously reports.https://t.co/TZsDqmHUWw pic.twitter.com/uDlSUOoZ54

— Josh Cowen (@joshcowenMSU) June 26, 2024

As the evidence for school vouchers collapsed over the last decade, the evidence case for directly funding public schools has continued to build.

That either is still a “debate” is the mere result of right-wing investment in a think tank network to manufacture a counter-reality. https://t.co/WFVxsZSqEw

— Josh Cowen (@joshcowenMSU) June 24, 2024

“[N]ew evaluations of vouchers in Washington, D.C., Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio show some of the largest test score drops ever seen in the research record—between -0.15 and -0.50 standard deviations of learning loss.” https://t.co/0Sd1FkrYWd

— jennycohn@toad.social ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) November 25, 2023

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What’s happening to education in states like Ohio

A 🧵

Not long ago, Ohio had the 5th highest system of public education in the nation.

Then big donors and Republican politicians got involved, largely drawn by the big money they sought to grab from public…

1/ pic.twitter.com/KvBijVu0Bh

— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) August 25, 2024