School choice/waivers--is it actually working well anywhere?

I'm in Tennessee, and the voucher initiative didn't pass last year. Since I don't have school-age children, I didn't follow it too closely, but from what I understand, it would have allowed almost anyone to open a school and receive voucher funding. This means that someone without any academic training could open a school and "mold young minds". I'm concerned about that aspect; however, I also see the other side of the argument because the schools here in Knoxville are not doing well. Many schools in underperforming areas, particularly in lower-income communities, struggle to retain teachers, and the students have alarmingly high truancy rates.

This year, the Education Freedom Act looks a bit different and passed both the House and Senate yesterday. The act would create 20,000 scholarships for students to use towards private school tuition, amounting to $7,075 each. This approach sits better with me since students will be attending accredited schools, but it doesn't solve the more significant issue of low-performing public schools.

I'm in Iowa and have a sophomore at a Catholic High School, so I can't speak on the public school front, but can say it's not changed our enrollment. I think many thought that private schools would see an influx of students and that's just not how it is panning out here. We are not eligible for the voucher based on earnings and I'm totally okay with that...we shouldn't be. I see both sides of the issue...I don't want it to penalize public school, making it hard to retain staff and student body, but I also think there should be some type of tax allocation dependent on your school of choice. It's tough to make it "fair" on either side.

Edited to add - "school of choice" being an accredited entity following all state and federal guidelines for education.  Your pop-up charter school shouldn't count.

I live in Nebraska.

This is the timeline of school choice. I am copying and pasting.

The first version of Nebraska’s school choice law, passed in 2023, provided a tax credit for those donating to a scholarship fund for private K-12 education. After passage, those opposing the law launched a petition drive to put the issue before voters.

Linehan sidestepped that referendum by replacing the law in the 2024 legislative session.

She and other lawmakers transformed the program into a $10 million annual state appropriation for private school vouchers, to be run through the office of State Treasurer Tom Briese, a Linehan ally.

The Support Our Schools campaign, with support from public school proponents, including Omaha Public Schools supporter Susie Buffett, collected the necessary signatures a second time to challenge the law on the ballot.

It was defeated in November.

New session of Unicameral, they are going to try again to get funding for private schools. It has been defeated twice by voters, and they won't let it go.

Schools of choice is very different from vouchers.

Schools of choice allows a child to attend a public school other than the one whose area they live in. We did this with DS for elementary and middle school within our school district. A neighboring district has terrible schools and so some kids from that district use schools of choice to get into our district.

A voucher system takes public tax dollars away from public schools and gives them to private schools. The governement should not be allowed to use tax money collected for public schools to further enrich private schools and their wealthier clientele.

I agree with you 100%. The vouchers are a total money grab for the wealthy who can already afford to send their kids to those private schools (or who homeschool), and would also a money grab for the for profit businesses that are running them in so many places. It would be a huge disaster especially in the more rural areas where there are already very few options and in the red states that don’t prioritize public education. When you don’t prioritize funding your schools or supporting teachers, what do people think they’re going to get? 🤪

There was a ton of reporting done on the damage vouchers would do when DeVos was pushing hard for them when she was the Secretary of the Dept of Education during FF’s last term, all of what you mentioned and more. I think when public money is involved there has to be some level of accountability and with private schools there is none. They can do what they want, exclude who they want, teach what they want. With the current rise in Christian Nationalism, I can easily see how these religious schools could be the perfect tool for indoctrinating kids in many communities.

My sister lives in TN and she is a member of a very Trumpy, cult like “church.” I could totally see her church setting up their own “school” in an effort to siphon off whatever free government money they can get if that becomes an option. My sister has become completely brainwashed by her church to believe all kinds of crazy right wing stuff that has no basis in fact. Right now all five of her grandkids live down there too and are all homeschooled, as are most of the kids in the families in their church. I worry about those kids, for so many reasons.

If you’ll forgive me asking - does your school educate kids with profound needs who require 1:1 aides? Kids who speak a language other than English? Kids with severe behavior problems who may be violent?

Those are the kinds of needs that public schools are required to meet. And personally, I don’t think schools who refuse those kids (often couched as a gentle, “Our school is not the best fit for your student”) should receive public funds. Nor should schools who require religious observation during the school day - itself a form of discrimination. Or schools who disallow LGBTQ kids or families with same-sex parents.

Religious schools who feel their offerings should be available to more low income students may seek donations to offset that cost from the pro-voucher crowd. But unless they’re willing to provide *every* child with a free, appropriate public education, they shouldn’t be getting public money.

Thanks for your answer. I have no problem with people sending their kids to private school. As to why those parents still pay public school taxes, it's because the whole community benefits from an educated population. That's also why people without kids still pay school taxes. I strongly encourage those who want more kids to have access to private education to donate to scholarship funds themselves rather than expecting all taxpayers to bear that cost.

Another way to think about it is that we all pay taxes to maintain the city parks and pools for the benefit of the community. You personally may prefer a private club membership for recreation and that's fine. But you still pay the city taxes, and the city doesn't help fund the private club. But the private club can seek donations from those who want to further its mission.

IME here it's rare for any private school to accept kids with special needs *unless* the parent is willing to pay extra for services like speech or dyslexia intervention. Most refuse kids with moderate/profound needs and kids who need ELL support, and routinely exclude those with extreme behavioral issues. Others have academic testing for entry and so exclude kids with below-grade learning levels. Many religious schools refuse LGBTQ kids and families with LGBTQ parents, and any religious school that requires religious ed or observance during the day is excluding those with different religious beliefs. So that is my perspective. Public money should be used for schools that can and will educate *all* the public, not just those they select.

ETA: one thing that is common in states with voucher schemes is that as soon as vouchers are passed, private schools raise their tuition an equivalent amount, so no one really benefits except for the families already in private school and/or the people who profit from them in the case of for-profit schools.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! 👍 Again, totally agree. One of my friends is a retired public school SPED teacher and some of the things she had to deal with during the school day would curl most people’s hair.

Yea, it works great in Finland. They have an excellent education program that includes choosing schools.

Oh I know that. But at least in highschool the students can choose a school that’s the best fit for them and that school will get that students portion $ from the govt.

So with students having a choice all the schools are good

I guess it doesn’t work if you live rurally but kids in urban areas can choose schools. They even call it school choice like we do but no private for profit schools.

Having a choice does not magically make all schools good. In my large urban district, we have a magnet system that allows student to choose their school in theory. We even provide transportation to the chosen school so that is no barrier to entry. Many of our magnet schools are excellent. In reality, though, the "good" schools - which tend to be good because they're the ones with a large proportion of wealthy families who can make donations and volunteer - only have so many seats, and many students are left in underfunded, crumbling neighborhood schools.

School choice is really only a good idea if all the schools are equally well funded and supported according to the needs of their students. Schools with a higher percentage of kids living in poverty need greater resources. As long as there is a marked difference between schools in different neighborhoods, affluent white families will work the system to get their kids into the "good" schools, leaving others behind. It's a truism that if schools compete for students, all schools improve, but the reality is that most are doing the very best they can with the resources they have, and can't do better without significant additional investment. The competition playing field is not remotely level.