Federal School Voucher Proposal Advances, a Milestone for Conservatives
Advocates for private-school choice celebrated this week as a federal schools voucher bill moved closer to becoming law, a major milestone that eluded their movement during President Trump's first term.
The House Republican budget proposal that advanced on Monday would devote $5 billion to federal vouchers for private-school tuition, home-schooling materials and for-profit virtual learning.
The program in the budget bill could bring vouchers to all 50 states for the first time, including Democratic-leaning ones that have long rejected the idea.
Supporters hailed the proposal as 'historic' and a 'huge win,' but some cautioned that there was still much legislative haggling ahead.
'Ultimately, every child, especially from lower-income families, should have access to the school of their choice, and this legislation is the only way to make that happen,' said Tommy Shultz, chief executive of the American Federation for Children, a private-school choice advocacy group.
Opponents of the proposal were stunned at its sweeping implications. While it is in line with President Trump's agenda, it had been considered somewhat of a long shot to make it out of the House Ways and Means Committee, because of its cost.
The program is structured as a $5 billion tax credit, allowing donors to reduce their tax bill by $1 for every $1 they give to nonprofits that grant scholarships — up to 10 percent of the donor's income.
The option to donate is expected to be popular with wealthy taxpayers.
The resulting scholarships could be worth $5,000 per child, reaching one million students. Any family who earns less than 300 percent of their area's median income — which equals over $300,000 in some parts of the country — could use the funds, meaning a vast majority of families would be eligible.
The proposal could pass through the budget reconciliation process, and could become law with only 51 votes in a Senate where Republicans hold 53 seats.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many Republican-led states passed new private-school choice laws, overcoming decades of resistance from teachers' unions, Democrats and rural conservatives. Opponents have long argued that vouchers hurt traditional public schools, by decreasing enrollment and funding levels. And they have pointed out that lower-income neighborhoods and rural areas often have few private schools, making it difficult for many families to use vouchers.
'We are against giving people tax breaks to defund public schools,' said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second-largest education union.
She pointed out that while Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have said they want to invest in work force education, artificial intelligence education and other priorities for student learning, they have consistently proposed cutting funding to public schools, which educate nearly 90 percent of American students.
'They don't believe in public schooling,' she said. 'What you're seeing here is the fragmentation of American education.'
A boom in new private-education options, like virtual learning and microschools, has already changed the landscape — as has an influx of campaign spending from conservative donors, like the financier Jeff Yass, intended to build support for private-school choice.
Last month, Texas became the last major Republican-led state to pass such legislation. Advocates quickly shifted their focus to Congress and the opportunity to push a federal voucher bill.
Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, is the sponsor of a Senate bill similar to the House proposal, and celebrated its inclusion in the budget package.
'Expanding President Trump's tax cuts is about preserving the American dream,' he said in a written statement. 'Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the dream possible.'
But the proposal will still have to overcome opposition, on both the left and the right.
Advocates for public schools have said that the new generation of vouchers and education savings accounts, which are often available to relatively affluent families, are a subsidy to parents who can already afford private education.
In Florida, which has more children using vouchers than any other state in the nation, some public-school districts have experienced enrollment declines and are considering shutting down schools or cutting teaching positions.
Even some conservative parental-rights activists oppose the creation of a federal program, which they worry could create a regulatory pathway that could eventually be used to impose government requirements on home-schooling parents or private schools — for example, by requiring standardized testing, which is not mentioned in the current proposal.
'The federal government should extricate itself from K-12 education to the fullest extent possible,' said Christopher Rufo, a leading crusader against diversity programs in schools, and a supporter of school choice. 'It's best left to the states.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Barabak: Trump could help feed hungry people. Instead he's throwing a vanity parade
On Saturday, on the streets of Washington, Donald Trump will throw himself a costly and ostentatious military parade, a gaudy display of waste and vainglory staged solely to inflate the president's dirigible-sized ego. The estimated price tag: As much as $45 million. That same day, the volunteers and staff of White Pony Express will do what they've done for nearly a dozen years, taking perfectly good food that would otherwise be tossed out and using it to feed hungry and needy people living in one of the most comfortable and affluent regions of California. Since its founding, White Pony has processed and passed along more than 26 million pounds of food — the equivalent of about 22 million meals — thanks to such Bay Area benefactors as Whole Foods, Starbucks and Trader Joe's. That's 13,000 tons of food that would have otherwise gone to landfills, rotting and emitting 31,000 tons of CO2 emissions into our overheated atmosphere. It's such a righteous thing, you can practically hear the angels sing. "Our mission is to connect abundance and need," said Eve Birge, White Pony's chief executive officer, who said the nonprofit's guiding principle is the notion "we are one human family and when one of us moves up, we all move up." Read more: Barabak: Putting the bully in bully pulpit, Trump escalates in L.A. rather than seeking calm That mission has become more difficult of late as the Trump administration takes a scythe to the nation's social safety net. White Pony receives most of its support from corporations, foundations, community organizations and individual donors. But a sizable chunk comes from the federal government; the nonprofit could lose up to a third of its $3-million annual budget due to cuts by the Trump administration. "We serve 130,000 people each year," Birge said. "That puts in jeopardy one-third of the people we're serving, because if I don't find another way to raise that money, then we'll have to scale back programs. I'll have to consider letting go staff." (White Pony has 17 employees and about 1,200 active volunteers.) "We're a seven-day-a-week operation, because people are hungry seven days a week," Birge said. "We've talked about having to pull back to five or six days." She had no comment on Trump's big, braggadocious celebration of self, a Soviet-style display of military hardware — tanks, horses, mules, parachute jumpers, thousands of marching troops — celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary and, oh yes, the president's 79th birthday. Marivel Mendoza wasn't so reticent. "All of the programs that are being gutted and we're using taxpayer dollars to pay for a parade?" she asked after a White Pony delivery truck pulled up with several pallets of fruit, veggies and other groceries. Mendoza's organization, which operates from a small office center in Brentwood, serves more than 500 migrant farmworkers and their families in the far eastern reaches of the Bay Area. "We're going to see people starving at some point," Mendoza said. "It's unethical and immoral. I don't know how [Trump] sleeps at night." Certainly not lightheaded, or with his empty belly growling from hunger. Those who work at White Pony speak of it with a spiritual reverence. Paula Keeler, 74, took a break from her recent shift inspecting produce to discuss the organization's beneficence. (Every bit of food that comes through the door is checked for quality and freshness before being trucked from White Pony's Concord warehouse and headquarters to one of more than 100 community nonprofits.) Keeler retired about a decade ago from a number-crunching job with a Bay Area school district. She's volunteered at White Pony for the last nine years, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. "It's become my church, my gym and my therapist," she said, as pulsing rhythm and blues played from a portable speaker inside the large sorting room. "Tuesdays, I deliver to two senior homes. They're mostly little women and they can go to bed at night knowing their refrigerator is full tomorrow, and that's what touches my heart." Keeler hadn't heard about Trump's parade. "I don't watch the news because it makes me want to throw up," she said. Told of the spectacle and its cost, she responded with equanimity. "It's kind of like the Serenity Prayer," Keeler said. "What can you do and what can't you do? I try to stick with what I can do." It's not much in vogue these days to quote Joe Biden, but the former president used to say something worth recollecting. "Don't tell me what you value," he often stated. "Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.' Trump's priorities — I, me, mine — are the same as they've ever been. But there's something particularly stomach-turning about squandering tens of millions of dollars on a vanity parade while slashing funds that could help feed those in need. Michael Bagby, 66, works part time at White Pony. He retired after a career piloting big rigs and started making deliveries and training White Pony drivers about three years ago. His passion is fishing — Bagby dreams of reeling in a deep-sea marlin — but no hobby can nourish his soul as much as helping others. He was aware of Trump's pretentious pageant and its heedless price tag. "Nothing I say is going to make a difference whether the parade goes on or not," Bagby said, settling into the cab of a 26-foot refrigerated box truck. "But it would be better to show an interest in the true needs of the country rather than a parade." Read more: Arellano: Trump wants L.A. to set itself on fire. Let's rebel smarter His route that day called for stops at a middle school and a church in working-class Antioch, then Mendoza's nonprofit in neighboring Brentwood. As Bagby pulled up to the church, the pastor and several volunteers were waiting outside. The modest white stucco building was fringed with dead grass. Traffic from nearby Highway 4 produced an insistent, thrumming soundtrack. "There are a lot of people in need. A lot," said Tania Hernandez, 45, who runs the church's food pantry. Eighty percent of the food it provides comes from White Pony, helping feed around 100 families a week. "If it wasn't for them," Hernandez said, "we wouldn't be able to do it." With help, Bagby dropped off several pallets. He raised the tailgate, battened down the latches and headed for the cab. A church member walked up and stuck out his hand. "God bless you," he said. Then it was off to the next stop. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Associated Press
27 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Democratic governors will defend immigration policies before Republican-led House panel
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump spars with California's governor over immigration enforcement, Republicans in Congress are calling other Democratic governors to the Capitol on Thursday to question them over policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform posted a video ahead of the hearing highlighting crimes allegedly committed by immigrants in the U.S. illegally and pledging that 'sanctuary state governors will answer to the American people.' The hearing is to include testimony from Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York. There's no legal definition of a sanctuary jurisdiction, but the term generally refers to governments with policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Courts previously have upheld the legality of such laws. But Trump's administration has sued Colorado, Illinois, New York and several cities — including Chicago and Rochester, New York — asserting their policies violate the U.S. Constitution or federal law. Illinois, Minnesota and New York also were among 14 states and hundreds of cities and counties recently listed by the Department of Homeland Security as 'sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law.' The list later was removed from the department's website after criticism that it errantly included some local governments that support Trump's immigration policies. As Trump steps up immigration enforcement, some Democratic-led states have intensified their resistance by strengthening state laws restricting cooperation with immigration agents. Following clashes between crowds of protesters and immigration agents in Los Angeles, Trump deployed the National Guard to protect federal buildings and agents, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused Trump of declaring 'a war' on the underpinnings of American democracy. The House Oversight Committee has long been a partisan battleground, and in recent months it has turned its focus to immigration policy. Thursday's hearing follows a similar one in March in which the Republican-led committee questioned the Democratic mayors of Chicago, Boston, Denver and New York about sanctuary policies. Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades. In 2017, then-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed legislation creating statewide protections for immigrants. The Illinois Trust Act prohibits police from searching, arresting or detaining people solely because of their immigration status. But it allows local authorities to hold people for federal immigration authorities if there's a valid criminal warrant. Pritzker, who succeeded Rauner in 2019, said in remarks prepared for the House committee that violent criminals 'have no place on our streets, and if they are undocumented, I want them out of Illinois and out of our country.' 'But we will not divert our limited resources and officers to do the job of the federal government when it is not in the best interest of our state, our local communities, or the safety of our residents,' he said. Pritzker has been among Trump's most outspoken opponents and is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate. He said Illinois has provided shelter and services to more than 50,000 immigrants who were sent there from other states. A Department of Justice lawsuit against New York challenges a 2019 law that allows immigrants illegally in the U.S. to receive New York driver's licenses and shields driver's license data from federal immigration authorities. That built upon a 2017 executive order by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo that prohibited New York officials from inquiring about or disclosing a person's immigration status to federal authorities, unless required by law. Hochul's office said law enforcement officers still can cooperate with federal immigration authorities when people are convicted of or under investigation for crimes. Since Hochul took office in 2021, her office said, the state has transferred more than 1,300 incarcerated noncitizens to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the completion of their state sentences. Minnesota doesn't have a statewide sanctuary law protecting immigrants in the U.S. illegally, though Minneapolis and St. Paul both restrict the extent to which police and city employees can cooperate with immigration enforcement. Some laws signed by Walz have secured benefits for people regardless of immigration status. But at least one of those is getting rolled back. The Minnesota Legislature, meeting in a special session, passed legislation Monday to repeal a 2023 law that allowed adults in the U.S. illegally to be covered under a state-run health care program for the working poor. Walz insisted on maintaining eligibility for children who aren't in the country legally, ___ Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Mo. Also contributing were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, N.Y.; Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minn.; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.
27 minutes ago
China appears to downplay US trade deal Trump said was 'done'
HONG KONG and LONDON -- A spokesperson for China 's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday appeared to downplay what President Donald Trump said Wednesday was a "done" trade deal addressing export restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors. Speaking at a press conference, the spokesperson characterized the outcome of this week's trade negotiations in London as a "framework" to consolidate what was agreed to at negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, in May. This week's talks in the U.K. represented the "first meeting," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson did not offer further details on what was agreed this week, telling reporters, "New progress was also made in addressing each side's trade concerns." On rare earths, the spokesperson said China would issue export licenses based on "reasonable needs" and noted that "compliant applications have already been approved." Trump on Wednesday framed the talks as having reached a deal. "Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me," Trump said on Truth Social, adding that the relationship between the world's two leading economic powerhouses was "excellent." Trump said that the U.S. would get "a total of 55% tariffs" with China's tariffs set at 10%. Trump added, "Full magnets and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities (which has always been good with me!)." Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick referred to the agreement as a "handshake for a framework." Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping will now have to approve the framework, Lutnick said. That step would appear to mean there were some concessions that both leaders did not give their negotiating teams authority to negotiate away. "Once that's done, we will be back on the phone together and we will begin to implement this agreement," Lutnick said. "The two largest economies in the world have reached a handshake for framework."
