the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 26, 2025
In early May, the governor of Texas signed the largest-ever U.S. school voucher program into law. It will take one billion dollars out of the state’s general fund for public education in its first year and divert it to private school tuition, including religious schools, virtual learning and home schooling.
One hundred thousand students in Texas can receive “vouchers” for private school tuition in the form of scholarships worth about $10,000. Texas has more than five million students, so “the program can’t serve everyone, but the legislature can appropriate more money for the program in the future.”
And, supposedly, any student can apply, although the program “prioritizes students with disabilities and from lower income families.”
Conservative politicians like Texas governor Abbott have fought for years to institute a school voucher system, together with Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos, and other billionaires. Their hard sell for “Universal School Choice” programs has focused on catch phrases like “parental rights” and on attacks against public schools, referring to them as “government schools.” They pretend that in doing programs like school vouchers, the control of children’s education would be in the hands of parents.
To get this legislation passed, Abbott played hardball. He endorsed Republican politicians who agreed and bumped off Republican representatives who opposed diverting public funds to private schools. Abbott’s campaign was bankrolled by millions of dollars, including from outside the state, where one billionaire donor alone, from Pennsylvania, gave him 10 million in campaign cash last year.
This campaign isn’t just in Texas. It’s the 16th state to make students eligible to receive public funds for private education. But the benefit isn’t primarily for students with disabilities or from low-income families. The reality is that voucher payments rarely cover the full cost of private schools, meaning that wealthier families, many who already send their children to private schools, reap the benefits.
Families in neighborhoods that are public school deserts or have public schools that are crumbling, due to the historic underfunding for public schools in the past 40 years, are targeted for support for these plans which don’t deliver. According to an educator who has researched school vouchers and their negative impact on public education, “These things are education’s equivalent of predatory lending. That’s what you would see here in Michigan. A lot of at-risk families lured into this stuff.”
This school voucher drive is an attempt to turn back the clock to a time before public schooling. But real “choice” would mean that all families would have the right to have their children educated in highly funded, quality public school systems.