The Private School Voucher Scam: How the Wealthy Exploit Public Funds

January 28, 2025

The playbook never changes: identify a public good, systematically starve it of resources, declare it a failure, then privatize it for profit. We’ve watched this strategy unfold in healthcare and housing—now, education stands in the crosshairs.

School vouchers aren’t about “rescuing children from failing public schools” as their proponents claim. That’s merely the marketing pitch. The reality? They drain public education funding, funnel tax dollars into private institutions, and overwhelmingly benefit wealthier families who don’t need the help.

How Private School Vouchers Work (and Why It’s a Scam)

Vouchers come in a few different flavors, but the concept is the same:

Instead of fully funding public schools, states hand out taxpayer dollars for private school tuition.
That money follows the student, meaning public schools get less funding every time a kid leaves.
Most voucher amounts don’t cover full tuition, meaning only families who can afford the rest can actually use them.

This isn’t a solution. It’s a wealth transfer, taking money from a system that serves everyone and handing it to families that already had options.

Who Actually Benefits?

Short answer: rich people.

Longer answer: Families who already had access to private schools, already had money to pay for them, and now get a tax-funded discount.

1. The Wealthy Use Vouchers as a Tuition Coupon

In Arizona’s ESA program, the average voucher covers $7,000, but private school tuition often exceeds $20,000+ per year.
In Wisconsin, vouchers offer $9,000, but private schools charge $15,000 or more.

Low-income families can’t cover the gap. Rich families can—and do.

2. Most Voucher Recipients Were Already in Private Schools

Arizona, 2023: 80% of voucher recipients were already in private schools before they got the money.
Florida, 2023: 60% of voucher recipients had never attended public schools.

This isn’t “saving” kids from bad schools. It’s a handout for people who already opted out.

3. Rich Families Have the Time to Work the System

Applying for a voucher is a bureaucratic mess.

Deadlines.
Paperwork.
Finding a private school that accepts them.
Paying for everything the voucher doesn’t cover.

Wealthy families have the time and resources to figure this out. Poor families? Many don’t even know these programs exist until it’s too late.

4. Private Schools Can—and Do—Reject Students

Even if a low-income student gets a voucher, that doesn’t mean they’ll get into a private school. Because private schools can:

Reject students with disabilities. (Public schools legally can’t.)
Refuse kids based on religion.
Kick students out for behavior issues.
Require expensive extras (uniforms, fees, transportation) that vouchers don’t cover.

Public schools take everyone—private schools cherry-pick. And taxpayers are subsidizing the selection process.

What Happens to Public Schools?

They bleed out. Slowly.

Every kid who takes a voucher pulls money from public education.
But the costs of running a school stay the same:

Teachers still need to be paid.
Buildings still need maintenance.
Buses still need fuel.

Public schools lose funding without losing expenses. That means:

Larger class sizes
Fewer programs
Lower teacher salaries
More school closures in low-income areas

Meanwhile, the students left behind are the ones with the fewest options.

But Do Private Schools Actually Perform Better?

No. And the data proves it.

Voucher proponents love to claim private schools are superior to public schools, but actual studies don’t back that up:

Indiana, 2017: Voucher students saw math scores drop and no improvement in reading.
Louisiana, 2016: Voucher students performed worse in math and reading than their public school peers.
D.C., federal evaluation: No meaningful academic gains for voucher students.

There’s zero consistent evidence that private schools produce better outcomes. None.

So if vouchers don’t help students and they hurt public schools, why do they exist?

Follow the Money

Vouchers aren’t about kids. They’re about privatization.

The people behind these programs? The same billionaire-funded think tanks that push “free-market solutions” for everything.

The DeVos family. (Education privatization fanatics.)
The Koch network. (Turning public services into private revenue streams.)
ALEC. (The group that writes model laws to push this agenda nationwide.)

These are the same people who fight teachers’ unions, push charter school expansion, and cut public education budgets—while selling you the idea that they’re the ones fixing the problem.

The Bottom Line

Private school vouchers do not:
❌ Improve student outcomes
❌ Help low-income families
❌ Fix public education

Private school vouchers do:
✔ Drain public school funding
✔ Subsidize wealthy families’ tuition
✔ Allow private schools to reject students
✔ Undermine the separation of church and state

This is not a reform—it’s a slow-motion defunding of public education.

What Can You Do?

Call your state legislators and tell them you oppose voucher expansion.
Vote in local school board elections. (This is where voucher battles start.)
Support public school funding initiatives.
Expose the scam. Share this with anyone who still thinks vouchers help the poor.

Public schools exist to serve everyone—not just the families who can afford to opt out. If we let them die, we’re all going to pay for it.