US EditionRapidly Expanding School Voucher Programs Pinch State Budgets
- Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs submitted an updated budget proposal in March addressing rising costs of the state's school vouchers program.
- The program directs public funds to subsidize private school tuition, led by an expansion that mostly enrolled students already attending private or homeschool settings.
- With 75,000 voucher recipients, the program could exceed $1 billion in spending next fiscal year, amid concerns it crowds out funding for disability services and first responders' pay raises.
- Experts note voucher costs add to state budgets rather than shift them, creating a 'perfect storm' amid tax cuts and a $1.3 billion Arizona shortfall linked partly to vouchers.
- Voucher proponents, supported federally and in other states like Texas, are gaining momentum despite concerns that funding both public and private schools strains budgets and may be unsustainable.
73 Articles
73 Articles
The Sun (Lowell)
Rapidly expanding school voucher programs pinch state budgets
By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org In submitting her updated budget proposal in March, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs lamented the rising costs of the state’s school vouchers program that directs public dollars to pay private school tuition. Characterizing vouchers as an “entitlement program,” Hobbs said the state could spend more than $1 billion subsidizing private education in the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic governor said those expenses could cr…
12News I-Team finds Arizona's $1 billion voucher experiment hurting high-performing public districts and charter schools
Former Gov. Doug Ducey said Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts would pull kids out of failing schools -- state records tell an entirely different story.
TN Vouchers: Funding Discrimination
Tennessee’s school voucher scheme is set to go universal in the 2025-26 school year. It’s bad news for the state budget – and for local schools. It will also likely lead to bad outcomes for kids. And not just on the academic side. Peter Greene writes about the potential for taxpayer-funded discrimination. This is what vouchers are about–defunding a system that has an obligation to serve all students and giving that money to a system that can di…
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