A growing number of red states has expanded its school coupons programs in recent years, a trend that probably only increases in the midst of an impulse led by the administration of President Donald Trump to return education “back to the United States.”
Conservative education activists have long praised such programs as a way of giving greater control to parents and families. But public education defenders warn that the expansion of these coupons programs has a higher risk for the broader school system, since it faces the danger of Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education.
“Many states entered this administration with a history of trying to privatize education, and I think they see this movement to dismantle and disburse the department of ED and the support of President Trump to school privatization as a green light to be more expansive in his focus on the future,” said Hilary Whing, an economist, an economist. in the Institute of Economic Policy of the Left that closely studies the impact of coupons programs on public education.
Last week, Texas promulgated a state coupons program of private school, becoming the 16th state to offer some type of universal school election program. In private school coupons programs, families can receive a certain amount of public money to use towards school registration or private school supplies of K-12. In some states, these programs have previously limitations, including close eligibility, such as private schools that can accommodate families with children who have special needs or families that are below certain income levels.
The proponents of the program in Texas and other similar ones call it a “universal coupon” program because it has no restrictions on who is eligible. According to the program, any family in the state can receive around $ 10,000 to pay the private education of the K-12 private school of their children. The Texas program will be launched in the 2026-27 school year.
State coupons programs are far from being a new phenomenon. But they have exploited in recent years in the middle of a growing political effort of conservatives at local, state and federal levels to boost the “school choice”, the notion that parents should have many more options than only the public schools in their neighborhood.
Sixteen states offer at least one coupon program that has universal eligibility, while another 14 offer coupons programs with eligibility requirements, according to the Center for Education Law, a public education defense group that criticizes coupons programs.
At least three states, Texas, Idaho and Tennessee, have promulgated their universal programs this year, while in eight other states, the attempts of conservative legislators to create new coupons programs or expand the existing stagnant or failed existing ones, according to the National Association of Education, the Union of Major Teachers in the country.
“Although this is not a new explosion of coupons laws, this year the explosion of coupons continues … and although the USDOE [dismantling] It is not necessarily the only driving force, it is definitely connected, “said Jessica Levin, director of litigation of the Center for Education Law, who is helping with demands that challenge Trump’s movements to dismantle the Department of Education.” The conclusion is that this is a concerted strategy by those who want to define and dismantle public schools and privatize public education. “
The most prominent argument made by critics of coupon programs is that they take public money that would otherwise have been assigned to help finance public schools and deliver it to private schools.
Private schools, they point out, do not face most of the responsibility requirements that public schools make under federal laws. For example, private schools retain the ability to reject students admission, are not obliged to provide individualized education plans to children with learning disabilities and are not obliged to provide disabled students or students who in front of disciplinary measures certain protections or rights of due process.
At the same time, financing formulas for public schools are predominantly based on registration numbers. Then, as students flee from public schools, even if they are only in small numbers, general financing decreases.
“Students who remain in public schools lose resources,” said Levin, while “coupons students lose rights.”
Meanwhile, Levin explained, the deviations from students promoted by public school coupons means “you are now concentrating children with greater cost and higher cost in public schools that now have less funds.”
These situations are now aggravated by Trump’s movements to reduce the Department of Education, which experts have said that the application of civil rights in schools will be further changed, as well as the distribution of billions of dollars to help impoverished and disabled students.
The spokeswoman for the United States Department of Education, Savannah Newhouse, said in an email to NBC News that “President Trump and Secretary [Linda] McMahon believes that the students of our nation will prosper when parents have the freedom to choose a school environment that best suits their children’s academic needs. “
Newhouse added that the Administration “will provide states with best practices on how educational opportunities can expand and train local leaders to implement personalized policies that will benefit their communities the most.”
Although some states have had programs similar to coupons that allow families to use public money for parish education that dates back to more than 100 years, modern coupons programs have existed for approximately 30 years, since they have been launched largely in the 1990s in the middle of a basic conservative movement to increase options for parents who are not happy with their local public schools.
But Covid-19 pandemic arose as a point of inflammation for conservative education activists, who used a generalized anger among parents discontent with school closures and remote learning as a launch platform for new and expanded coupons programs throughout the country.
The proponents of school coupons say that programs maximize the choice for parents, who can use funds to subsidize the cost of costly private schools, which, as they argue, offer better results for students. Supporters have also promoted programs that offer a market -based approach that helps promote the best schools and have argued that they have the potential to benefit low -income families or families with few options for public schools.
Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children, a conservative group that advocates school coupons, told Fox News this week that universal coupons programs such as the one promulgated in Texas give parents “educational freedom.”
He praised a similar program that Florida expanded in 2023, claiming that he had caused the state’s public schools to “have improved.” Schultz denied that the Texas program, or that they like it, would result in less resources for public schools, qualifying that “the same argument for 30 years” by the defenders of public education.
Andrew Mahaleris, spokesman for the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said in an email that the Republican “made freedom of education a priority because no one knows the needs of his son better than a father.”
“When it comes to education, parents matter and families deserve the ability to choose the best education opportunities for their children,” Mahaleris added. “The governor who signs the election of the school is an unprecedented victory for the families of Texas, the students and the future of our great state.”
But critics point out examples that show that universal school coupons programs are disproportionately used by rich families whose children are already enrolled in private schools, or that children in rural areas with few schools have limited options to use money to use. Studies that refute the statement that private schools offer better results for students also point out.
In addition, registration in private schools, even with a coupon to help cover the cost, can still be prohibitively expensive for low -income families, they said.
What, of the EPI, said that the analyzes have shown that between 60% and 90% of the students who take advantage of universal eligibility coupons programs in the United States were already registered in private school when they participated in the programs.
She warned about the damage she said programs like Texas.
“As soon as you get rid of income limits or tals to, for example, only low -income families or only students with disabilities, basically open the doors for students who already attend private school, or who already have enough income to attend private school, to use state funds to subsidize their private school,” he said. “It is the next step in what we think how this evolution of the coupon.”
