The Texas voucher program, also known as “education savings accounts,” is a proposal that would allow some parents to use public education funds to help pay for private or alternative schooling.
School vouchers are a high priority for Governor Greg Abbott. The voucher plan legislation failed to pass in the last regular legislative session due to lack of support from rural Republicans who recognized the program would take away funding for their local school districts, a major employer in rural counties, and there would be few private school opportunities in the low population areas.
Last Thanksgiving, Governor Abbott called a special session to again try to pass school vouchers, and once again it failed to pass.
Undeterred, Abbott targeted anti-voucher Republican lawmakers by financially supporting and endorsing primary challengers in the March primary election. Abbott now says he expects to have the votes to pass vouchers in January when the legislature meets again.
This voucher proposal has sparked a heated debate across the state, especially from critics who point out it would weaken the traditional public school system by siphoning off its limited funding. Critics also object to how the program would mainly support students who are already enrolled in private schools, and it wouldn’t provide the education equity promised by Abbott. In fact, research shows that school vouchers hurt education outcomes for lower income students.
In the new book “The Privateers, How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers” author Josh Cowen exposes the surprising history of tax-funded school choice programs in the United States and warns of the dangers of education privatization.
Cowen is a former evaluator of state and local school voucher programs. He demonstrates how such programs have expanded in the United States—but also there is now plenty of fact-based evidence that shows that vouchers don’t deliver for communities.
The book presents the case that educational privatization is failing students and exacerbating income inequality. Cowen cites multiple research studies that conclude that voucher programs return poorer academic outcomes, including lower test scores on state exams, especially among students who are at greater academic risk because of their race, their religion, their gender identity, or their family’s income. Cowen argues school vouchers are an assault on public education which is a defining American institution.
Guest:
Joshua Cowen is a professor of education policy at Michigan State University and, for the 2024-25 academic year, Senior Fellow at the Education Law Center. He has been studying vouchers and other school choice programs since 2005. Cowen is a nationally recognized expert and writer on topics related to school choice, teachers and teaching, policy analysis, and education politics. He has studied school vouchers, school accountability, charter schools, and parental decision-making as part of major research teams in Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. His writing on school vouchers, culture wars, and other current events has appeared in major media outlets ranging from Slate to Time Magazine. He speaks and testifies across the country on the dangers of school privatization and is regularly quoted in state and national feature reporting.
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*This interview will be recorded on Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
