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Maurice T. Cunningham of Damariscotta is the author of “Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization.”
Maine Sen. Susan Collins faces a crucial decision on whether to support President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” One provision stands out for the harm it would do to Maine’s public schools: a school voucher provision funded through a federal tax credit. It would go a long way toward achieving MAGA’s definition of “school choice”: to abolish public schools in favor of “free-market private schools, church schools and home schools.”
The federal voucher program would divert funds from the public schools that nearly 90 percent of our children attend to subsidize many upper-income parents who are already sending their children to private schools.
As the New York Times reported, when the voucher-supporting Betsy DeVos became secretary of education in 2017, vouchers produce some of the worst academic achievement results ever recorded.
Michigan State University education policy professor Josh Cowen has found that most voucher dollars go to sub-prime pop-ups started to cash in on voucher money or failing schools (including religious schools) desperate to stay afloat.
This federal voucher scheme explicitly allows discrimination in private schools to go unchecked. Private religious schools could reject LGBTQ+ youth. It would allow discrimination against disabled children. Students of differing academic ability could be shoved aside. English language learners could be rejected.
Our public schools accept all students.
The voucher provision of the “big, beautiful bill” might better be termed the “big billionaire bailout.” As former teacher Peter Greene has written, vouchers, along with cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, are designed to provide tax cuts for the wealthy.
Greene cites research from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showing that the tax benefits to the rich would spur $126 billion in 100 percent tax credits for donations to voucher programs over a decade, but the tax subsidies would actually cost the public treasury $134 billion. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that “the nation’s wealthiest families would enjoy substantial tax avoidance opportunities under ECCA” (the name of the original voucher bill).
Vouchers may benefit the wealthy, but every day people see what a bad deal they are and reject them. According to the National Coalition for Public Education, every time vouchers have appeared on a ballot for a vote, the people have rejected them. This happens even in red states.
But supporters have had success passing vouchers in a number of red state legislatures. In Tennessee wealthy interests pressured legislators to subsidize private schools with public dollars. A powerful lobbyist for billionaire Charles Koch’s political operation, Americans for Prosperity, threatened a legislator with political retaliation for opposing a vouchers bill.
Many rural Republicans oppose school vouchers because they understand the devastating impact vouchers have on rural schools. Public schools are often the only option for educating students in rural areas. They are frequently the largest employer in the county and hub of local communities, where people come together for community events like sports or concerts. The MAGA education plan — tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of our public schools — threatens to devastate rural community schools.
That has not stopped voucher supporters. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott pushed vouchers, but the legislature rejected him four times. So, Abbott targeted rural Republican legislators in elections and prevailed. A headline in The Financial Advisor sums up Abbott’s campaign: “Billionaires Swoop In To Fund Abbott’s Texas School-Voucher Push.” Abbott and his out-of-state billionaire buddies got what they paid for — a voucher bill passed.
Mainers do not need the federal government to tell us how to run our schools. President Trump already tried that. Gov. Janet Mills stood up to him in court. And she won.
This should be an easy call for Collins. Stand up for Maine’s kids or deliver a windfall to the billionaires.
