Writing for Religious Dispatches, Hially Gutierrez interviews Josh Cowen, voucher scholar and author of The Privateers.
Can you tell us a bit about what led to this book?
Over the past 20 years, evaluating various public programs, especially in education, I’ve always sought to examine what is or is not working for kids and families in education, and why. School voucher programs have historically shown some of the most significant negative impacts in education, with effects comparable to the test score declines seen after events like Hurricane Katrina or COVID-19.
By 2019, the research community largely believed that vouchers were on the decline, as newer programs continued to show increasingly poor outcomes for students. Despite this, in the last few years, there’s been a surge in states passing or expanding voucher programs, particularly in Republican-led states that supported Donald Trump in 2020. This shift prompted me to ask why these harmful programs continue to gain traction.
My conclusion points to the rise of Christian nationalism, which has played a key role in reinvigorating support for vouchers. This movement is part of a broader wave of right-wing cultural battles, including book bans and debates over race and gender in schools, which have given new momentum to the push for school choice programs.
I appreciate your recognition of the role of the Christian right and Christian nationalists. But how do voucher programs continue to advance given that right-wing views are actually minoritarian?
One word: billionaires. And a few in particular….Betsy DeVos, of course, but also Charles Koch and the Koch network [who] are big players in the voucher scene that I don’t think folks are as well aware of. And there are newer figures such as Jeff Yass in Pennsylvania, Wilson Dunn, and two billionaire pastors in Texas. But it starts with DeVos and Koch at the top of the pyramid. And then you have your usual suspects (the Heritage Foundation, etc.).
The very first paragraph in the education chapter of Project 2025 [calls for] the ending of the Department of Education—the chief anti-discrimination authority in the United States when it comes to schools—which is why they’re trying to do away with it.
Paragraphs two and three are about vouchers, but that’s gotten less coverage even though it’s a major priority for the Trump agenda and for right-wing think tanks. This is a key piece of their long-term education agenda, which needs to be understood as part of an overall effort to remake schools and, in particular, to win funding for private religious education.