Republicans' big idea for remaking public education hits voter resistance

Source: Politico

11/27/2024 05:00 AM EST


An aggressive Republican campaign to pump hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into private education is continuing across the country, even after voters in three states rejected the idea.

Texas lawmakers are poised to debate a universal school voucher program next year, following Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s scorched-earth campaign to oust GOP lawmakers who thwarted his top priority. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee and state legislative leaders have already reintroduced a school choice bill to provide thousands of students private education scholarships after a similar bill floundered last year amid resistance from rural lawmakers.

And North Carolina Republicans this month used the waning days of their legislative supermajority in the state House to override departing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that will inject upwards of half a billion dollars in new annual spending into a private school scholarship program that has tens of thousands of students waiting to participate. “It came in over budget because so many families decided to avail themselves of this,” Tim Moore, North Carolina’s House speaker and a representative-elect, said of the state’s growing initiative. “That says a lot right there about the popularity of the program.”

It’s a clash between legislative will, labor groups, and voter discontent over a policy trend that’s already swept through much of the country. Teacher union leaders are scrambling to beat back new school choice bills in state legislatures — measures they believe decimate funding for public schools. They’re also organizing resistance to federal private school tax credit legislation endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump that has a path to approval in a Republican-controlled Congress.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/27/republican-school-voucher-program-expansion-voters-00191598