Martin Gartzman is a former executive director at UChicago STEM at the University of Chicago. In this op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times, he explains the federal voucher act currently waiting for its big chance.
Quietly lurking behind the curtain of the Trump administration’s higher-profile plans to dismantle public education in the United States is a far-reaching and deceptively named piece of proposed legislation: the Educational Choice for Children Act.
The Act does not get the same attention as the idea of closing the U.S. Department of Education or banning discussion of topics related to race and gender. But it is central to the plan from far-right Republicans and President Donald Trump to destroy public education as we know it. It is a massive, $10 billion per year program that, its proponents claim, expands “school choice” by providing education vouchers in the form of scholarships to religious and other private schools, and for homeschooling.
The Choice for Children Act would be the first national private school voucher program, establishing vouchers in every state. It is a significantly more expansive cousin to the discredited and recently terminated Illinois Invest in Kids program.
The Act uses generous tax credits — dollar-for-dollar reductions in taxes owed — to incentivize donors. As such, it is both an ideological effort to privatize education and a major tax giveaway for wealthy individuals. Under the proposal, donors would be able to receive tax credits of up to 10% of their adjusted gross income. For example, donors with an income of $10 million would be able to reduce their tax bills by as much as $1 million each year by making donations under the Act. Corporations would be eligible for a similar tax reduction of up to 5% of their taxable income.
Furthermore, in an almost guaranteed prescription for abuse and scandal, the proposed legislation explicitly prohibits nearly all accountability measures related to how voucher funds are spent. Schools and families will be able to spend the vouchers on just about anything they want simply by claiming the expenses have some connection to education. Additionally, it would be prohibited under the Act for federal, state, or local government entities to consider questions such as “Does the school discriminate on the basis of religion or race?” or “Does it exclude students with disabilities or other special needs?” or even “Are the voucher-supported programs effective?”
Perhaps more significantly, the Act tramples over one of the most fundamental principles of American government: the separation of church and state. Under the Act, taxpayer funds can be used to support religious education. Members of “minority faiths”— and those who have chosen no religion — are most vulnerable to attack when the wall of separation between church and state is breached. Currently, the danger is evident in the many attempts to embed “Christian values” and prayer into all avenues of public life, including schools.
