Lurking within President Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ budget bill is an alarming proposal: the first nationwide private school voucher program that poses an existential threat to public education.
Originally a stand-alone bill, the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) got folded into Trump’s budget. It would send $20 billion in taxpayer funds to private (mostly religious) schools.
The Brookings Institute has put together a great analysis of the provision that explains its many faults, including the idea that it will amount to a huge transfer of money from poor communities to affluent ones. Now that the budget bill is pending in the U.S. Senate – it has already passed the House of Representatives, this is a good time to step back and take a look at the many problems with school vouchers.
Traditionally, religion and all of its programs have been supported by voluntary contributions. Vouchers, however, force everyone to support religion. They are essentially a form of church tax. America’s founders fought to free us from compelled support for religion. As James Madison once observed, “[T]he same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?”
Private religious schools can and do discriminate. Some refuse to admit students unless they belong to the sponsoring faith or decline to admit youngsters with disabilities. Others exclude young people for being members of the LGBTQ+ community. Some impose rigid moral codes governing all aspects of students’ behavior, inside and outside the classroom.
Since 1967, Americans have had the opportunity to vote directly on sending taxpayer funds to private schools in a series of state referenda. They have rejected vouchers every time, often by large margins – including last November in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska.
The very idea of public education is that it brings children of diverse backgrounds together and provides them with the education they need to become productive citizens. Vouchers instead encourage division among our communities along religious lines and disrupt the idea of national unity.
Last week, faith leaders, parents, and students from across the country flew to Washington, D.C., to remind senators of all the problems with school vouchers and urge senators to jettison the program from the ‘big beautiful’ budget bill. AU’s Faith Advisory Council member, Rabbi Robert Barr of Ohio, spoke at a press conference and explained, “The Educational Choice for Children Act harms public education and undermines the fundamental American principle of the separation of church and state.”
He reminded us that public education, which serves 90% of all students, “encourages children to learn about the diversity inherent in America. Public education is vital for it serves all children without discrimination as opposed to private schools.”
And he spelled out how vouchers harm religious freedom. “We as religious leaders and people of faith understand that freedom of religion is essential for a healthy democracy. And while we value religious education, it is wrong for public dollars to be funding it. Requiring that citizens of diverse religious beliefs, members of religious minorities, or those who hold no religious beliefs, to support religion not their own infringes on their rights.”
Now we also need you to take action now to stop this terrible proposal in Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ budget bill. The moment is urgent. Here are some things you can do.
Photo: At a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol on June 4, 2025, Rabbi Robert Barr, a member of AU’s Faith Advisory Council, joins faith leaders in speaking out against the inclusion of a private school vouchers scheme in Trump’s ‘big beautiful’ budget bill.
