After failing to push his statewide voucher program through the legislature last year, GOP Gov. Bill Lee announced this week that he’s calling state lawmakers into a special session to consider the proposal once again.
It’s clear, given the lengths he’s going to, that Lee wants a statewide voucher system to be among the central pinnings of the legacy of his governorship.
It’s our hope that this endeavor fails. There is a growing body of research and reporting that suggests school vouchers are a detriment to public education, both financially and academically.
Just this week, ProPublica published a report on Ohio’s now decades-old voucher system, documenting how the program is increasingly funneling state funding to the private education of wealthy families.
ProPublica quoted a superintendent in an Ohio school district who said the state’s voucher program ± and its continued expansion — is costing his county millions of dollars a year.