Would Trump Suck Money out of Rural Public Schools?

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Billionaires are financing school voucher campaigns -- and attacking rural legislators who disagree.

The billionaires supporting Trump have multiple goals for a Trump presidency, from enacting massive new income tax cuts for the rich to stopping the Biden administration’s crackdown on their monopolistic business practices.

A largely overlooked aspect of their plans for America’s future, however, is a campaign, led by people such as Betsy De Vos (Trump’s former Secretary of Education) and Jeff Yass (made very rich by Tik Tok), to divert billions of dollars of public funds to private schools. Their websites insist that they just want to promote “school choice” or “parental freedom”. What they talk less about is that sending taxpayers’ monies to private schools directly reduces funding for our public schools. And that rural public schools – which are often already short of funding – would be the biggest losers.

The school choice movement, of course, is not new. And in some cases – notably large urban school districts that have struggled to provide strong educational environments – a well-administered system of charter schools can be a beneficial option.

However, recent legislation passed in over 20 states mostly requires little accountability or standards from the private schools that benefit from voucher programs. Moreover, the billionaires are pushing more than just vouchers. They are also prompting educational savings accounts and generous tax credits for anyone, including businesses, who donates directly to private schools.

The tax credits are especially attractive to the well-off -- in fact, this review of school voucher tax credits of three states, including Virginia, revealed that it was overwhelmingly wealthy families who benefitted. Moreover, some states even allow businesses to claim tax deductions for donations to private schools, which it turns out can even be profitable.

• Vouchers and tax credits siphon off public funding they desperately need,

• A loss of students may further reduce state funding, forcing schools to spread fixed costs over a smaller student body,

• Tighter budgets caused by lower school enrollments also make it harder for public schools to attract and retain teachers,

• Lower student numbers could force closure and consolidation of rural schools, hurting not only the students but the communities built around those schools.

In Virginia, Democrats in the state legislature have held off Republican ambitions to expand spending on private schools. In Republican-controlled states, however, the cost to taxpayers of new voucher programs can be high. For example, in Ohio, which recently passed a universal private school voucher law, the annual tab to taxpayers is $1 billion and still climbing.

Not surprisingly, many Republican legislators from rural counties in these states understand the danger for rural public schools and strongly oppose the school voucher movement. And have found themselves targeted for defeat by conservative PACs - and even by their own party leadership. In fact, in Texas’ 2024 Republican primaries, 13 out of 16 rural legislators opposed to vouchers lost or gave up their seats, thanks to well-funded campaigns against them. And “conservative” PACs like the AFC Victory Fund and the Club for Growth have made it clear that rural legislators in other states will be similarly pressured.

The school voucher/tax credit movement has had great success in recent years – but still mainly in Republican-dominated states. A Trump election would therefore be a game-changer for them. Having the power of the federal government on their side could allow them to force some version of vouchers and tax credits on every state…

One lesson here is that rural “conservatives” and “progressives” have more in common than they may realize. In this case, they both oppose private school vouchers and tax credits. But can they work together to oppose the billionaires’ campaign?

Want to find out more? Start here:

https://littlesis.org/news/billionaires-yass-devos-team-up-to-dismantle-public-schools-across-the-us/

https://sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/itep/ITEP-brief-2023-Tax-Avoidance-Continues-to-Fuel-School-Privatization-Efforts.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/rural-public-school-vouchers-republican-efforts/678819/

https://19thnews.org/2024/07/republicans-trump-project-2025-abolish-department-of-education/

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2024/03/school-choice-group-spends-millions-to-oust-recalcitrant-republicans/

https://www.commondreams.org/news/billionaires-public-education

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