Remarks at No Vouchers Press Conference as prepared—April 26, 2024
As the President of AFT Pennsylvania, a state federation representing 36,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, school staff, higher education faculty and staff, and state workers in 64 local unions, I have the pleasure of counting among our membership the hardworking educators from Pennsylvania’s two largest school districts, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The COVID-19 pandemic shone a light into the inequities in our public education, inequities that, as has been stated, we know to be in violation of Pennsylvania’s constitution—wealthier school districts were more nimble than their lesser-funded neighbors. The condition of the physical school buildings often determined how quickly students and educators could re-enter the classroom safely. And we saw how districts with adequate mental health and counselling resources faired better than those without.
Right now is the time to invest more into our schools, not less. And despite what those who favor vouchers say, there is literally no mathematically sound way to send money to private and religious institutions without harming school districts’ budgets; it is a farce.
And vouchers offer a false choice. In Indiana, students in private school voucher programs experienced significant losses in achievement in math and saw no improvement in reading. In Louisiana, students who started in public schools and transferred to private voucher schools dropped from the 50th percentile in math to the 26th percentile in a single year.
Vouchers lack accountability. Most private schools, even those receiving taxpayer-funded voucher money, do not have to meet standards for curriculum, testing, teacher qualifications or school quality, including here in Pennsylvania where private schools that enroll students under a state tax-credit voucher program are not required to provide information on student achievement, testing or demographics.
Private school vouchers increase segregation. In Arizona, the wealthiest students received most of the money in the tuition tax credit program, leading to increased economic segregation. The Department of Justice had to sue the state of Louisiana because its voucher program may have violated desegregation orders.
Speaking of Arizona, vouchers are bankrupting that state. Arizona’s general fund pays out more for vouchers than it does to pay for a public school education, according to research by its own state legislature’s independent analysts. The per pupil allocation is $900 less for high school public school students than for students whose education is funded through a voucher.
Overall, Arizona’s voucher program is projected to cost $950 million next year, $320 million of which is unbudgeted.
Finally, private school vouchers whether it’s in Arizona or right here in Pennsylvania, the vast majority of students using a voucher were not going to a public school the year before they started using the voucher. Meaning that in a commonwealth where the average cost of private school tuition is around $20,000 a year, the students taking advantage of vouchers were born to well-off or wealthy families to begin with, completely dismantling the argument that these programs are to help low-income families in struggling schools.
We, educators, are experts in teaching children and in developing our next generation of citizens. We also believe that every child in the Commonwealth deserves a shot at life through a quality, public, free education. And what we know is that aside from draining funds from our schools, vouchers don’t work. They don’t work.
Thank you.