In the Public Interest recently issued a brief, The New Federal Voucher Program: Considerations for Policymakers, that takes a look at a new program that was created through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and  establishes a federally-funded national school voucher program. The program is optional for states–each state must decide to opt in or out on an annual basis. It provides a dollar-for-dollar tax refund for contributions–up to $1,700–individuals make to scholarship granting organizations (SGOs) which is then doled out by the SGO to schools. 

While the new law allows public school students to use vouchers for a range of supplemental supports, it is clear that the vast majority of the voucher funds will be used to subsidize tuition payments at private and religious schools.  

As the name implies, our brief lists a wide range of questions states need to ask when they’re mulling over the decision.

At the very least, we hope that states would wait until the U.S. Department of the Treasury issues regulations related to the program. At the moment, it would be hard to argue that states that have indicated they will opt in to the program have a full understanding of what, exactly, they’re opting into.

But we would argue that the program already presents all the same issues any voucher program presents, especially one important one: It’s bad for public education.

Vouchers hurt kids. In fact, the promise that students can use vouchers to “escape” public schools and improve their educational outcomes has been proven false again and again. Research confirms that academic outcomes for voucher-using students are no better, and often worse than students in public schools. 

The argument we hear the most for the program is that it’s money from the federal government to the states that states should not turn down. Politicians who have not in the past been supporters of voucher programs have been supportive of this one on that basis. Colorado Governor Jared Polis told Politico, “The more Democratic governors learn about it, I fully expect that most will come around and participate. Because from our perspective, it’s free money.” 

We aren’t in the habit of invoking the memory of–let alone the reasoning of–Milton Friedman, but there’s no such thing as free money. 

Kevin Welner, a professor emeritus and research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, School of Education, specializing in educational policy and law,  concisely lays out the reasons in his memo included in the National Coalition for Public Education’s exploration of the voucher program (see Not Free Money memo). 

The full memo is a must-read for those living in states considering opting in, but we summarize some of the main points here: 

• Every dollar contributed to an SGO means the federal budget loses a dollar that would otherwise be paid in taxes. This program is expected to reduce federal tax revenues by over $26 billion annually.
• The private schools supported by the SGO program are not subject to most anti-discrimination laws, so these schools may refuse to serve students who are the most expensive to education, including those with disabilities. This concentrates the greatest need in schools with ever-diminishing resources.  
• Public schools, which are obligated to teach all children, will bear the brunt of expensive and disruptive burdens when the inevitable churning of once-private school kids leave or are kicked out of their schools midyear.
• Though SGOs can donate to public schools to cover extra-curriculars, private and religious schools, with histories of running effective fundraising campaigns, will have a huge head start, exacerbating resource inequity in communities. 
• As with any voucher program, the lost enrollment leaves the public schools with fixed costs–utilities, maintenance, administrative personnel–that cannot necessarily be reduced because of having fewer students.
• States will have to bear some costs of administering the program.
• And, finally, the voucher program accelerates the cycle of disinvestment in a community’s public schools.

In addition, existing school voucher programs like those in Arizona, Florida and more than a dozen other states have been rife with fraud, waste, and abuse. Without robust oversight and accountability, millions of dollars have been wasted on non-educational expenses like tickets to Disney, jewelry, and vacation travel. Thousands of ineligible families have received vouchers. Hucksters have opened schools that soon close due to mismanagement. All of these are frequent outcomes of unregulated privatization. We shouldn’t let our children be the pawns in the privatization game.

Ultimately, like all voucher programs, the new federal program will contribute to the further defunding of public education so that public schools will become the schools of last resort for those who can’t afford private schooling–this time with help from the federal government and America’s taxpayers. Just as Milton Friedman intended.