What’s at stake
A new federal law — buried inside President Trump's signature H.R. 1 legislation — creates the largest expansion of private school vouchers in U.S. history.
Starting in 2027, the Educational Choice for Children Act offers dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for "donations" to private voucher organizations. That means a donor redirects money they would have paid in federal taxes to a private entity, and pays nothing out of pocket.
States have the choice to participate, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she plans to opt in.
This is a tax handout for the rich that will harm public schools serving 90 percent of our students. Voucher proponents and President Trump’s wealthy friends keep repeating the same misleading claims to sell the scheme.
Here are the facts:
- Vouchers redirect public tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, regardless of how they’re branded: “Education Savings Accounts,” “tax credit scholarships,” or “school choice.”
- Under H.R. 1, eligibility extends to families earning up to 300 percent of their area’s median gross income — more than $500,000 in parts of New York. This is not a program for struggling families.
- Funds do not go directly to families. They flow to private Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs), which decide who receives the money. These are private organizations who are not required to be transparent or accountable to the public and the private schools that SGO’s fund can turn away students based on disability, academic record, behavior, religion, gender or any other criteria they want.
Myth vs. Reality
MYTH 1: “Vouchers give families more choices.”
❌ THE LIE: Vouchers expand options for all families, especially those who can’t currently afford private school.
✅ THE TRUTH: Vouchers rarely cover the full cost of private school tuition. In Iowa, private schools raised prices 21–25% after vouchers arrived. Low-income families still can’t afford the gap — and private schools can reject any student they don’t want.
In Arkansas, 95% of voucher recipients were already enrolled in private school.
In Indiana, voucher recipients were more likely to earn over $100,000 than under $50,000.
The data is clear: vouchers primarily benefit wealthy families who have already left the public system.
MYTH 2: “Vouchers improve student outcomes.”
❌ THE LIE: Private schools produce better academic results, and vouchers help students access higher-quality education.
✅ THE TRUTH: The research says otherwise. In Louisiana, voucher students are 50% more likely to fail math. In Indiana, significant learning losses persisted for years. In Ohio, voucher students fared worse academically than their public school peers. Private schools receiving voucher dollars are exempt from most public school accountability standards and face no required financial audits or transparency requirements.
MYTH 3: “Vouchers don’t hurt public school budgets — the funding follows the student.”
❌ THE LIE: When a student leaves, the funding follows them, so public schools don’t lose anything.
✅ THE TRUTH: Public schools lose their entire per-pupil funding when students leave to go to private schools, but their fixed costs for buildings, buses and utilities remain the same. This forces cuts to educators, programs and support services for the majority of students who stay.
In Cleveland, Ohio, a 5% enrollment loss equals $654 less per remaining student and $31 million in total harm to the district. The public school doesn’t shrink — it just gets hollowed out.
MYTH 4: “Voucher programs are affordable and fiscally responsible.”
❌ THE LIE: Voucher programs are carefully managed and cost-effective for taxpayers.
✅ THE TRUTH: The Arizona experience tells a different story. In 2022, Arizona launched universal vouchers — projected to cost $65 million. In its first year, the program cost $332 million. By fiscal year 2024, the cost had exploded to $738 million — 1,229% over budget. It became a primary driver of a $1.4 billion state budget shortfall, forcing Arizona to cut $333 million from water infrastructure, $54 million from community colleges, and tens of millions from highway repairs. Indiana’s voucher program started at $15 million and now costs nearly $500 million annually, projected to exceed $600 million by 2027. Ohio’s voucher program is approaching $1 billion a year. Voucher programs don’t stay small — they grow without limit and destabilize entire state budgets.
MYTH 5: “The public supports school choice.”
❌ THE LIE: Polls show overwhelming public support for school choice programs.
✅ THE TRUTH: Pro-voucher polling presents the concept of “school choice” without explaining the cost to public schools. When voters learn the full trade-offs, support collapses. A national poll (All4Ed) found that two-thirds of voters favor increasing funding for public schools over vouchers. In Texas, 65% of voters opposed a voucher program once they understood it would defund popular public schools. The public supports strong public schools — not schemes that drain them.
MYTH 6: “Vouchers promote integration and equity.”
❌ THE LIE: Vouchers help low-income and minority students escape failing schools and achieve greater equity.
✅ THE TRUTH: Research shows voucher programs increase school segregation, not reduce it. Affluent families are more likely to leave public schools, concentrating students of poverty in underfunded public schools. Private schools receiving voucher dollars can legally discriminate in admissions — cherry-picking students based on religion, disability status, academic record, or behavior. And unlike public schools, they are not required to serve students with disabilities under IDEA. Parents who accept vouchers forfeit the guarantee of a Free Appropriate Public Education.
MYTH 7: “This could be good for public schools and their supporters.”
❌ THE LIE: Anyone can create an SGO and utilize this law to their advantage.
✅ THE TRUTH: School vouchers are a failed policy. They do not improve academic outcomes. They create a two-tiered education system that benefits the wealthy, strips rights from vulnerable students, and defunds the public schools that unite our communities. Participating in a program crafted by an administration that has already stripped public education across the nation would reflect a poor understanding of what New York schools, students and families actually need for educational success.
The Bottom Line
Opting New York into the federal voucher program would unleash a massive, uncapped privatization effort, devastating the public schools.