Trump's disassembly of the educational department gives the states 'green light' to follow voucher programs

A growing number of red states has expanded its school voucher programs in recent years, a trend that is expected to only increase, led by the government of President Donald Trump to return education “back to the states”.

Conservative educational activists have long praised programs to give parents and families better control. However, supporters in public education warn that the expansion of these voucher programs is another risk of the broader school system, since it is exposed to Trump's ministry.

“Many states came with a success story in this administration to try to privatize education At the left -wing economic policy institute, which carefully examines the effects of voucher programs on public education.

Just last week, Texas put a nationwide private voucher program that was the 16th state that offers a form of a universal school choice program. In private school voucher programs, families can receive a certain amount of public funds for private K-12 school lessons or school material. In some states, such programs previously have restrictions, including close authorization, e.g. B. private schools that families with children with special needs or families can accommodate under certain income levels.

Proponents of the program in Texas and others how it describes like a “universal voucher” program because there are no restrictions on who is justified. As part of the program, each family in the state can receive around $ 10,000 in order to pay for the private school education of their children K-12. The Texas program will start in the school year 2026-27.

Nationwide voucher programs are far from a new phenomenon. In recent years, however, in view of a growing political effort from conservatives at local, state and federal level, they have exploded to increase the “school selection” – the idea that parents should have far more opportunities than just their public schools in the neighborhood.

Sixteen states offer at least one voucher program that has universal authorization, while another 14 voucher programs offer authorization requirements.

At least three states, Texas, Idaho and Tennessee, have issued their universal programs this year, while in another eight countries attempts to create new voucher programs or to expand existing deputies, according to the National Education Association, the largest teacher union in the country, have been designed or failed.

“Although this is not a new explosion of the voucher laws, this year continues the explosion of vouchers … and although the USDOE [dismantling] If it is not necessarily the only driving force, it is definitely connected to each other, ”said Jessica Levin, the legal dispute manager of the education law center, who in the event of complaints, the Trump's steps in order to question the Ministry of Education.

The most prominent argument of critics of voucher programs is that they would take public funds that would otherwise have been awarded to finance public schools and to hand over to private schools.

They find that private schools do not face most of the requirements for accountability that do public schools according to federal laws. For example, private schools have the opportunity to reject the approval to students, not to provide individualized educational plans for children with learning difficulties, and are not necessary in accordance with the law to provide disabled students or students with disciplinary measures or proper process rights.

At the same time, the financing formulas for public schools are mainly based on registration numbers. If the pupils flee public schools – even if in only small numbers – the overall financing drops.

“The students who stay in public schools lose resources,” said Levin, while “voucher students lose rights”.

In the meantime, Levin said that the pubescent students have modified pupils with girschen -driven students.

These situations are now being tightened by Trump's steps that the educational department degraded, and experts' information will continue to increase the enforcement of civil rights in schools and the distribution of billions of dollars for impoverished and disabled students.

Savannah Newhouse of the US Ministry of Education said in an e -mail to NBC News that “President Trump and Secretary [Linda] McMahon believes that the students of our nation will thrive when parents receive freedom to choose a school that best meets their child's academic needs. “

Newhouse added that the administration “will provide the states best practice for how to expand educational opportunities and enable local managers to implement a tailor -made guideline that benefits their communities the most.”

While some states with pricing-like programs in which families were made possible to use public money for parish training that have returned more than 100 years, there have been modern voucher programs for about 30 years that were initiated in the 1990s in the nineties in the middle of a conservative basic movement to increase the options for parents for their local public schools.

However, the Covid 19 pandemic was a flashpoint for conservative educational activists who used the lower parents with school closures and remote learning as a launch pad for new and expanded voucher programs across the country.

The supporters of school vouchers say that the programs maximize the selection for parents who can use the funds to subsidize the costs of expensive private schools, which, how they argue, can provide better results for the students. The supporters also advertised the programs as a market -based approach that contributes to promoting the best schools and argues that they have the potential to benefit families with low income or families with unique options for public school.

Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, a conservative group that works for school voucher programs, said this week that Universal voucher programs such as the parents issued in Texas are “freedom of education”.

He praised a similar program that Florida expanded in 2023 and claimed that the state's public schools had led to “getting better”. Schultz denied that the program of Texas or the like would lead it to fewer resources for public schools, which is called “the same argument for 30 years” by lawyers in public education.

Andrew Maaleris, a spokesman for Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, said in an e -mail that the Republican has “freedom of education for priority because nobody knows the needs of his child better than a parent”.

“When it comes to education, parents and families deserve the ability to choose the best educational opportunities for their children,” added Mahalis. “The governor who signs the election of the school is an unprecedented victory for families in Texas, students and the future of our large state.”

However, critics indicate examples that show that universal school voucher programs are used disproportionately by wealthy families whose children are already enrolled at private schools, or that children in rural areas with few schools only have limited opportunities to use the money. They also indicate studies that refute the claim that private schools provide better results for students.

In addition, enrollment in private schools, even with a voucher to cover costs, can still be unaffordable for families with low incomes, they said.

According to the EPI analyzes, Wing showed the EPI that between 60% and 90% of the students who used the universal voucher programs in the USA were already enrolled in private school when they took part in the programs.

She warned of the damage she said that programs such as those in Texas posed.

“As soon as you remove the income restrictions or circumference for families with low incomes or only from students with disabilities, you basically open the gates to students who are already attending a private school or who already have enough income to use the private school to use state funds to subsidize your private school,” she said. “It is a kind of the next step in what we consider as a voucher development.”