September 08, 2008
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NSBA's Issue Brief on Private School Vouchers


BACKGROUND

School vouchers are education tax dollars typically diverted from public schools in order to help subsidize the tuition of private and religious school students. While a few states and cities operate limited voucher programs, the federal government funds a pilot program in Washington, D.C. That program, created controversially in 2004, provides vouchers worth up to $7,500 to about 1,900 students. Enacted as a five-year “pilot”, the program is set to expire in 2008 unless Congress chooses to reauthorize it.

Despite predictions by voucher proponents that the program would enable students to attend a better school, the federally mandated evaluation of the program found no significant academic differences in reading and math between private school voucher students and Washington, D.C. public school students. In addition, a 2007 review by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) uncovered several accountability problems with the program, suggesting that many resulted from a lack of detailed fiscal policies and high staff turnover at the non-profit entity that operates the program. Among the problems:

  • Voucher funds were spent for students’ tuition at some schools that do not charge any tuition for non-voucher students.
  • Students from Washington, D.C. public schools “in need of improvement” are vastly underrepresented in the voucher program although the law stipulates that they are to receive priority for receiving a voucher. In 2006, just 24 percent of participating voucher students had been enrolled in schools in need of improvement, whereas 52 percent of all DCPS students attend such schools. (Note: participating private schools are permitted to maintain their admission standards).
  • In a randomly selected sample of 18 participating private schools, three lacked a building occupancy permit, six had a building occupancy permit but not to operate as a private school or child care center and seven had only an occupancy permit to operate as a child care center.
  • In a randomly selected sample of 50 participating students, GAO identified voucher payment problems with 46 of the students.
  • Voucher funds were spent on before- and after-school care for 60 percent of students (in the random sample) but in most cases GAO could not determine whether the schools’ services included any academic support activities, as required by the program.
  • Though intended to serve K-12 students, it is essentially an elementary and middle school program because so few seats have been made available by private high schools.

In addition to considering whether to allow the Washington, D.C. voucher program to expire as it is slated to, Congress is likely to also decide the fate of another voucher proposal by President Bush in his Fiscal Year 2009 budget. The president has requested millions of dollars for vouchers each year only to see Congress reject them. Additionally, should Congress move forward with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) / No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), NSBA expects voucher amendments to be offered.

NSBA POSITION

NSBA opposes private school vouchers and will urge Congress to not renew the expiring Washington, D.C. voucher program, to oppose appropriating any federal funds for a national voucher program such as those previously promoted by President Bush, and to oppose any amendments to make vouchers part of a reauthorized ESEA / NCLB.

  • The 5-year Washington, D.C. voucher experiment should expire—Congress should allow the experiment with vouchers in the nation’s capital to expire as it is set to do in 2008. Besides costing taxpayers approximately $14 million a year, the program has not led to improved student achievement and has suffered from many of the same oversight problems (as noted by the GAO report) that voucher programs in other cities and states have experienced.
  • Vouchers abandon public schools and drain away critical dollars—Vouchers divert attention, commitment and dollars from public schools to pay private school tuition for a few students, including many who already are in private school. Even proposals that purportedly create a new funding stream to pay for vouchers miss the mark: if new public money is available for education it should be invested in strengthening the schools that educate the vast majority of our students – our public schools. The president’s annual proposals to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on private school tuition are especially misguided considering federal funding for crucial education programs, such as Title I and IDEA remain drastically underfunded. Congress needs to adequately fund existing public school programs – not create new programs that send scarce dollars to private schools.
  • Vouchers eliminate public accountability—In stark contrast to the strong requirements faced by public schools, private voucher schools, including those in the Washington, D.C. program, do not have to meet NCLB standards including the hiring of “highly qualified” teachers, the NCLB testing requirements and Adequate Yearly Progress, nor do they have to accept all students. Existing voucher programs, from Florida to Cleveland to Milwaukee, have suffered from scandal and fraud due to the lack of public accountability inherent in these programs.
  • Vouchers are no way to raise student achievement for all—A GAO report to Congress on the Cleveland and Milwaukee voucher programs noted that the most credible research found “little or no difference in voucher and public school students’ performance.” The federal evaluation of the Washington, D.C. voucher experiment discovered the same.
  • Vouchers leave behind many students, including those with the greatest needs—Vouchers leave behind many disadvantaged students because private schools may not accept them or do not offer the special services they need. Students with disabilities “were actively counseled out of the (voucher) program,” in Cleveland, a state official acknowledged.
  • Vouchers waste taxpayer money—Vouchers force taxpayers to support two school systems: one public and one private. Existing private school students usually are eligible to receive vouchers, creating a new cost to taxpayers.
  • Vouchers give choices to private schools, not parents—Private schools decide if they want to accept vouchers, and then how many students they want to admit. And even if a voucher student does gain acceptance into a private school, the school can later reject him or her for numerous reasons, as the evaluator of Milwaukee’s program documented. The African-American lawmaker who founded the Milwaukee voucher program later questioned the dismissal of students by private schools, and criticized the ability of private schools to select parents and students instead of parents selecting schools as proponents typically claim will occur.
  • Vouchers remain publicly unpopular—Utah voters, in 2007, overwhelmingly voted to repeal a state voucher program by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent. This marked the 11th time in 11 referenda over the past 30 years that voters have decisively rejected specific voucher or tuition tax credit proposals.

SUMMARY

NSBA urges Congress to reject private school vouchers and tuition tax subsidies that undermine public accountability in education and ignore the needs of America’s 49 million public school students. We urge Congress to work with NSBA to improve, not weaken, the nation’s public schools.

For additional information, please contact Marcus Egan, director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association at 703-838-6707, or by e-mail, megan@nsba.org.

February 2008