SEF opposes new executive order on school vouchers
STATEMENT – Jan. 30, 2025
The Southern Education Foundation opposes President Trump’s executive order that seeks to expand federal funding for private school vouchers. The executive order directs the incoming U.S. education secretary to identify and prioritize federal funds to support voucher programs.
SEF President and CEO Raymond C. Pierce said, “The nation is at a critical moment that requires thoughtful and strategic focus on strengthening our public school systems to meet increased global competition for a well-educated and well-trained workforce. The president’s executive order expanding federal funding for private school education is an abandonment of any serious federal role around the imperative of effectively and efficiently educating the masses of our nation’s school-age children.”
SEF believes that school voucher programs are wasteful, ineffective, and unaccountable programs that siphon public money away from the nation’s most vulnerable and underserved students.
Private school vouchers do not improve student achievement as claimed by the administration. Research on existing voucher programs shows no clear academic advantage for students using vouchers to attend private schools compared with students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds in public schools. In fact, some studies show that students using school vouchers have lower academic achievement than comparable students in public schools.
School vouchers originally emerged as a policy to circumvent school integration efforts in anticipation of and after the Brown v. Board of Education court decision, and research shows that current-day school vouchers increase racial isolation of students.
The public opposes school vouchers. A 2024 national exit poll completed by the nonpartisan Alliance for Excellent Education shows that 68% of American families prefer supporting public schools over increasing funding for school vouchers. Further, voters in Kentucky and other states recently rejected ballot initiatives to allow private school vouchers.
Given these facts about vouchers, we are disappointed by the new administration’s focus on directing federal dollars to ineffective school voucher schemes that divert critical resources from the students most in need.
Last month, we sent the Trump Administration’s transition team a list of federal policy recommendations to support every child throughout our nation in early learning through postsecondary completion. We urge the administration to adopt the policy recommendations outlined in our memo rather than focus on diverting critical funds from our most underserved students.
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Media contact: Alan Richard, arichard@southerneducation.org, (202) 641-1300
SEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supported by partners and donors committed to advancing equitable education policies and practices that elevate learning for low-income students and students of color in the South. We develop and disseminate research-based solutions for policymakers and grow the capacity of education leaders and influencers to create systemic change. We envision a world where every student, regardless of background, enjoys an education that propels them toward the opportunity-rich life they deserve.