Mitchell Robinson of Michigan State explains why “tax credit scholarships” are a zombie idea. They are consistently rejected by voters, they fail to educate students, yet they never die.
So even though “Tax Credit Scholarship” is just a sneaky way to “rebrand” private school vouchers–a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Very Betsy DeVosian idea that’s pretty clearly unconstitutional and has been rejected overwhelmingly by voters in Betsy’s home state of Michigan twice, humiliating Ms. DeVos and her husband both times–voucher initiatives still keep popping up in state legislatures across the country, stumbling zombie-like through the educational landscape, devouring public school budgets even as they enrich their wealthy funders.
Michigan voters rejected them twice. DeVos learned a lesson. Skip the referendum. Buy the Legislature.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think ed reformers have a real problem with private school vouchers and “accountability”.
It matters because the two pillars of ed reform are (supposedly) 1. choice and 2. accountability.
The echo chamber adopting private school vouchers makes “accountability” only apply to the public schools they disfavor, leaving ed reform with ONE policy- “choice”
It is incoherent to spend 20 years screaming about how public schools need to be “accountable” and then not apply any of that to publicly-funded private schools. It doesn’t make any sense and in my opinion reveals the whole “accountability” tenet of the movement to be a sham.
They are not going to be able to regulate private schools. They can’t even regulate them to the extent that the private school has to accept all comers. With the adoption of vouchers ed reform becomes 100% about “choice” and is now indistinguishable from any of the radical privatization plans of the last 50 years.
I think this is reflected in their work. Can anyone point to ONE thing ed reformers accomplished since Trump took office other than pushing vouchers? They haven’t lifted a finger for public schools, at either the federal or state level.
When the US Department of Education travels the country promoting private school vouchers and tells the public this means they can “choose” any private school, do they have a duty to inform that public that is not true?
Because it isn’t true. Not on any level- price, admissions, the selection process private schools may utilize that public schools may not.
Why are we paying thousands of federal employees to mislead people? How are they credible in any other area if they’re misleading in this one? If I’m an 18 year old college student should I trust the USDOE on student loan advising, given that the voucher push omits half the relevant information the public might need to make an informed decision?
Is this federal agency completely captured? If so, do young people need to know that so they will look elsewhere for information? How can the buyer beware if the seller works for the ed reform movement and not the public?
Vouchers are a useless zombie idea that needs to eliminated like a parasitic zombie. The wealthy have used vouchers to gain tax credits in order to avoid making their contribution to the common good. The academic results of voucher schools are abysmal so there is no real need for them. Moreover, most voucher deals avoid allowing the public the weigh in on the matter because generally voters do not want to send their tax dollars to religious and unaccredited schools of questionable value. It’s time to put the zombie to sleep for good.
DeVos learned a lesson. Skip the referendum. Buy the Legislature.
Exactly what has been done in Florida.
Private schools seem to be quite generous with grant monies for those families making less than 150,000. Why not keep these schools private by having those like the DeVos family donate to their favorite private school’s foundation fund?