US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin
In a spotlight forum on Republicans’ so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Durbin exposed Republicans’ short-sighted plan to institute a national school voucher program that will drain critical resources from public schools
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today participated in a spotlight forum entitled “Scamming Our Schools: Robbing Our Students’ Futures to Line Their Pockets.” During the forum, which was hosted by U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Durbin focused on how the Republican budget reconciliation bill would create a national school voucher program that would further drain resources and funding from public schools.
Durbin began by reflecting on the school voucher program created for Washington, D.C., called the “Opportunity Scholarship Program,” which was suggested by former U.S. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH).
“I asked some basic questions when this opportunity program was created. Basic questions like, who’s going to decide the quality of the teachers in these schools’ situations? What kind of curriculum will be offered? What kind of measurement of success or failure will there be? Will the student be better off as a result of attending these so-called voucher schools?” Durbin began.
“Here’s a couple things that I discovered… The net result of it was not a very positive experience for these students… In fact, we couldn’t find many of the schools several years later when we went out to measure them. That that was a problem,” Durbin said about the lack of oversight on voucher schools.
“I wonder if we get into a tax credit situation, whether or not there’ll be measurements to avoid the excesses which I’ve noted,” Durbin said. “I’m wondering what happens with these young people who are disabled when they go through this experience?”
Katy Neas, CEO of the Arc of the United States, which is the largest national community-based organization advocating for and serving people with disabilities, replied to Durbin’s question by noting that many private schools will not enroll students with disabilities. Additionally, the Republican budget reconciliation bill would not require private schools to accept students with disabilities despite publicly funded schools being required to provide all students with an accessible education. Ms. Neas added that by creating a national school voucher program, public funds would be redirected to private schools, further draining the already limited resources public schools have to support students with disabilities.
“How much is built into this model to measure whether you actually have a school or just a scam?” Durbin asked.
Ms. Neas replied that there’s no guidelines in the Republicans’ bill to ensure schools are providing an adequate education for students.
“How about the quality of the teachers at these schools?” Durbin asked.
Ms. Neas referenced the school voucher program in Florida, which does not require teachers to be licensed, nor are there curriculum standards for participating schools.
Ms. Alexis Underwood, President of the Association of Bay County Educators, which is a chapter of Florida’s Education Association, later added that public schools, where educators are trained to support students with complex learning needs, are better equipped to support students with disabilities than most private schools, which have little to no requirements to provide high-quality education to students with disabilities.
Video of Durbin’s remarks is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks is available here.
State private school vouchers drain state tax revenues, often through line-item appropriations in the state budget or forgoing revenue by providing tax credits to fund school vouchers. In a few states, like Florida and New Hampshire, private school vouchers are funded by directly diverting education funding that would have otherwise gone to public schools through the state K-12 funding formula or from the state’s dedicated education fund.
Both the House and Senate version of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act would allow federal taxpayer dollars to cover school vouchers, which could be used to cover a list of expenses associated with public, private, or religious schools, and the House version of the bill also includes homeschooling expenses as eligible expenses for the voucher. Both the House and Senate bills would require that students come from a family with a household income of less than 300 percent of the area median gross income, which would cover about 90 percent of families nationwide, including many that are high-income, and many families that already have children enrolled in private schools.
Both versions of the bill also would prevent the federal government from regulating private or religious schools under the voucher provision, leaving students vulnerable to discrimination. While the House bill’s voucher provision would cost $5 billion a year over four years and sunset after 2029, the Senate bill makes the voucher program permanent with a cost of $4 billion a year.
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