Ed Doerr of Americans for Religious Liberty wrote this overview of vouchers.
The most enlightening information in this paper appears on page 11, where he lists the 29 State referenda where the issue was spending public money for religious schools.
Every one of them was defeated.
Voucher proponents like to say that the unions (those evil unions) outspent the voucher advocates, but note that vouchers were defeated even in non-union states. The claim is ridiculous on its face since billionaires like the DeVos family, the Waltons, and the Koch Brothers support vouchers.
The paper should be updated to show how Vouchers have been adopted insidiously in states where the Constitution and the voters oppose them, like Florida.
This explains why privatizers are terrified of referenda. They know they can’t win. The public opposes vouchers. The only way they get adopted is when wealthy donors buy legislators or pour millions into the campaigns of religious zealots.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bet none of us realize that all of these choices for education give America a ‘global competitive edge’. I’d like to see where the statistics are to support this claim. Trump is once again proving what an ‘expert’ thinker he is.
……………………
This just came in from the WH:
More than a paper diploma
“There are a great many reasons to support education choice,” then-Cato analyst Jason Bedrick wrote in 2016. “One reason is simply this: it works.”
This week is National School Choice Week, made official by President Donald J. Trump in a proclamation issued Monday. Just three decades ago, charter schools didn’t exist. Today, more than 3 million students are enrolled in such programs.
Two principles guide the Administration’s vision for school choice: opportunity and results. “Communities that provide academic options — traditional public, public charter, private, magnet, parochial, virtual, and homeschooling — empower parents and guardians to select the best educational fit for their children,” the President wrote.
In aggregate, those opportunities turn into a global competitive edge for America.
“Our students deserve more than just a paper diploma.”
Q The only way they get adopted is when wealthy donors buy legislators or pour millions into the campaigns of religious zealots. END Q
How can you say that? The state of Indiana, brought in the nation’s largest school-choice program. The legislation passed the state assembly, with the requisite majority vote. The governor, Mitch Daniels, signed the legislation. The program passed constitutional muster, unanimously. The next governor, Mike Pence, oversaw a dramatic increase in the program.
Here is an excellent article, from National Public Radio (a leftist institution, not at all supportive of school choice). see
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/12/520111511/the-promise-and-peril-of-school-vouchers
How can you claim that the legislature was “bought”? This is a very serious charge, bribery. If you have substantial proof of outright bribery, why has no one presented this charge to law enforcement, or the FBI?
As you know, vouchers have been voted down by every public referendum. Any legislature that adopts vouchers is not responding to the will of the people.
They are bought and paid for by big donors to Tepublican campaigns like the Koch brothers and the DeVos family.
Read Gordon Lafer’s “The One Percent Solution.”
That is, if you read anything other than the National Review and Breitbart.
Q Any legislature that adopts vouchers is not responding to the will of the people.END Q
How can you say that? Every state legislature is charged with implementing the will of the electorate. Indiana, and the other states which have brought in school choice, through legislative action, have enacted the will of their constituents.
The Virginia legislature, has passed school choice legislation several times, with a clear majority. Every time the legislation has been presented to the governor, he has vetoed it. The current governor is not supportive of school choice, either.
I would submit, that the past and present governors of my state, are not responding to the will of the people!
There have been 20 State referenda on vouchers. Every one was defeated. None of them was close.
Try reading something other than the rightwing media.
Read about the millions poured into vouchers by the Koch brothers and the DeVos family.
I think I will start deleting your duplicate comments, Charles.
My time is too valuable to waste saying the same things over and over and over to you.
Your poor wife.
“How can you say that? Every state legislature is charged with implementing the will of the electorate. Indiana, and the other states which have brought in school choice, through legislative action, have enacted the will of their constituents.”
This is another typical “we can believe you’re that stupid/willfully blind if you really want us to” type of statements from you. Ever heard of ALEC? The Waltons? Eli Broad? Bill Gates? There are tons of rich folks and lobbyists who pour money into politics specifically to thwart the will of constituents. I’m sure you know that, so I’m not sure what’s behind your babe-of-the-woods act.
It is 2018 and still if feels as if these crucial questions are being yelled down a dark bottomless well: HAVE YOU HEAR OF ALCE? The Watons? Eli Broad, Bill Gates?
ALEC.
Ditto what Dienne said. As if there’s no swamp to be drained and dialing for dollars doesn’t happen, and all the rest. What utter silliness!
If you repeat yourself all day and night to her as you do on this Blog, I pity the poor woman
“…from National Public Radio (a leftist institution, not at all supportive of school choice)….”
Oh stop! You’re going to make me bust a seam from laughing so much. What makes you think that “leftist” (sic – by which you mean centrist Democratic) institutions don’t support school choice? Ever heard of DFER? Cory Booker? Rahm Emanuel? NPR is just another of that ilk.
Charles: “The program passed constitutional muster, unanimously.” The Supreme Court of Indiana ruled that since these vouchers were given to parents who could choose the school their kids attended, it did not violate the Indiana constitution which prohibits tax dollars from doing to religious schools. It was a backsided way to promote something that is against the constitution.
Vouchers do not help public schools nor children but politicians have been sold on the deal. Something essential is missing. I get promotional literature from my state Congressmen every so often. They are lying and I am tired of it.
I do not want my tax dollars to support religious schools. Somehow the thought of children learning that people rode dinosaurs is revolting. The constitution supports me in my beliefs. How backwards should we be as a nation? I fear for what this generation of students are learning OR for what they should be learning and aren’t. Science is not a game of ‘anything goes’. There are grave consequences for ignorance.
To me the big ed reform story since Trump was elected is how they all capitulated to vouchers.
Two years ago there was a whole set of “liberal” ed reformers who were (supposedly) opposed to vouchers, or that’s what they told voters in their campaigns, anyway.
That’s gone. The echo chamber moved en masse to promote vouchers over a period of MONTHS.
I think it was horsetrading. They knew conservative politicians would pour money into charters as long as they got vouchers, so a deal was struck.
As usual, public school families were utterly ignored in all these high-level negotiations.
Our schools and kids got NOTHING. Less than nothing. In 25 states our schools have less funding now than they did in 2008.
There is no upside in ed reform for public school families. They simply add no value to existing public schools. None. Often they do actual HARM.
I read a lot on the ed reform side and right now they’re touting a study that says NYC public school children are not HARMED by vouchers.
That’s the measure of their work now- they give themselves an A+ if they don’t actually HARM students in public schools. And these people dominate government! People who don’t even TRY to add anything of value to public schools. The absolute BEST they can offer public school families is “we won’t destroy your child’s school”
How did this happen? How did we end up with an entire federal government and so many state legislatures who are AT BEST not interested in working for public school families?
I’m guessing that there are some NYC parents who might question that no harm no foul declaration. The reformers probably base that statement on test scores as if test scores tell us what public schools have had to eliminate with a drop in dollars and space.
By the way, Chiara, thank you for your continued coverage of reform’s degradation of public education in Ohio. I have learned so much from you.
My mistake- The NYC study is charters, not vouchers, because of course NYC doesn’t have vouchers yet.
But they will. The echo chamber are pushing vouchers everywhere else. Why not NYC?
Betsy DeVos
Jan 18
More
It was an honor to participate in the National #SchoolChoice Week Rally and to celebrate and highlight students who are benefiting from the ability to choose the learning environments that work for them
The federal employees continue their important work politicking for privatization again this week.
Same as every week.
Are students from the unfashionable public school sector barred from federal buildings now? 50 million families don’t have a single advocate in DC.
Ludicrous. We have a whole set of public employees who are opposed to the schools 90% of kids attend. Thanks ed reform! Great job “serving kids”. This is working out GREAT for public school families. We pay tens of thousands of public employees to work as hard as they can to eradicate our schools.
Kudos to Mr. Doer for an encyclopedic overview of the voucher situation and history. Well worth saving and sharing.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.