National attention continues to turn to Arizona’s disastrous universal voucher program. This week, Josh Cowen, a Professor of Education Policy at Michigan State University, wrote an article previewing some of the themes from his new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, which will be released this fall (presales are available at Changing Hands Books!). 

Cowen outlined four ways that voucher programs defund public schools, and of course, Arizona’s universal program is heavily featured:

# 1: Voucher funding primarily goes to students already enrolled in private schooling.

The vast majority of universal vouchers  — upwards of 75% in Arizona — go to students who were already enrolled in and paying for private schooling on their own dime. These vouchers represent an entirely new cost to the state and a massive drain on state budgets. In Arizona, we estimate that up to $500 million in voucher costs are an entirely new cost to the state this year, even as the state faces a $650 million shortfall for the same fiscal year. The simple truth is that states can’t afford two separate education systems, which further digs a chasm between haves and have-nots.

# 2: Districts still need to shoulder the same fixed costs if students disenroll.

While the impact on state budgets is clearly devastating, individual districts are harmed even further. Vouchers are not causing a mass exodus of students from public to private schools, yet districts fall into financial distress when slight enrollment declines drain massive amounts of funding from their coffers. Voucher pushers like to talk about average costs per child to push the myth of “the money follows the child,” failing to mention that district costs are fixed — meaning they must pay the same price for air conditioning, buses, counselors, and so much more regardless of whether 500 students are enrolled or 20 students leave with a voucher and 480 students stay. 

# 3: Districts must take on additional costs to support voucher students.

Because voucher schools are not required to provide special education services, public schools are forced to provide additional support to voucher students — despite not receiving any state funding for that student. In Arizona, districts like Deer Valley have reported spending over half a million dollars on special needs evaluations for private school students. Chandler Unified reports that they provided more than double the evaluations for private school students this school year than in previous years.

# 4: Voucher funding precludes critical investment in public schools.
Even putting aside the direct cost to state budgets and school districts, the massive cost of universal vouchers also prevents states from making vitally needed investments in their public schools. In 2023, Michigan became the seventh state in the US to implement a universal school meal program, which will cost the state roughly $160 million a year. That is less than a third of what a voucher scheme backed by Betsy DeVos would have cost had it not been voted down by their state legislature. We are seeing these exact impacts here in Arizona: our state could afford teacher pay raises, all-day kindergarten, and universal school meals.without the massive drain of vouchers

Cowen’s main takeaway: the only “competition” caused by universal vouchers is a competition for desperately needed funding, not for academic superiority. 

Our takeaway: Arizona can’t afford to continue the welfare-for-the-wealthy universal voucher program. We should be investing in our public schools like Michigan, providing the necessary resources for our students and their teachers to succeed. Instead, we’re staring down the barrel of potential budget cuts to essential state services so Republican lawmakers can continue to give their campaign donors a discount on the private school tuition they were already paying. 

Arizona kids and educators deserve so much better.