Tim Walker is a senior writer/editor for NEAToday. In this recent piece, he explains how vouchers create problems for rural schools.
“None of this makes any sense,” says middle school teacher Liz McDonald. “I have no idea what they think our schools will gain. We will lose so much.”
McDonald teaches in Cache, a small town in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Cache is roughly 120 miles from Oklahoma City and 200 miles from Tulsa—where the vast majority of private schools in Oklahoma are clustered.
“People talk about ‘school choice.’ We don’t have that choice because private schools are too far away,” McDonald says.
For families in Cache, that usually isn’t much of a concern. “Our schools are supported and valued,” she adds. “They are the heart of this community and so many other rural communities across the state.”
But McDonald is worried. In May 2023, Oklahoma became the latest state to enact a universal or near universal school voucher law that educators and many parents fear will starve public schools, particularly those in rural areas, of critical funding. In Oklahoma, more than half of all public schools serve rural communities.
“We have enough challenges already. We desperately need more resources for students, more counselors, more support staff,” McDonald explains. “With vouchers, they are taking money from our students and giving it to private schools.”
For years, Oklahoma educators and their allies sounded the alarm on vouchers’ staggering record of failure in states such as Florida and (especially) Arizona, as they successfully turned back legislative efforts to bring vouchers to their state. But in 2023, governor and privatization champion Kevin Stitt managed to corral enough support for a scaled back and remodeled version called the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act. When Stitt began to push for expansion and the lifting of spending caps, public education advocates were not surprised.