Vouchers Deliver Blow to Rural Schools: ‘They’re Taking Money From Our Students.’

"None of this makes any sense," says middle school teacher Liz McDonald. "I have no idea what they think our schools will gain. We will lose so much."

McDonald teaches in Cache, a small town in the southwestern part of Oklahoma. Cache is roughly 120 miles from Oklahoma City and 200 miles from Tulsa-where, along the vast majority of private schools in Oklahoma are clustered.

"People talk about 'school choice.' We don't have that choice because private schools are too far away," McDonald says.

For families in Cache, that usually isn't much of a concern. "Our schools are supported and valued," she adds. "They are the heart of this community and so many other rural communities across the state."

But McDonald is worried. In May 2023, Oklahoma became the latest state to enact a universal or near universal school voucher law that educators and many parents fear will starve public schools, particularly those in rural areas, of critical funding. In Oklahoma, more than half of all public schools serve rural communities.

"We have enough challenges already. We desperately need more resources for students, more counselors, more support staff," McDonald explains. "With vouchers, they are taking money from our students and giving it to private schools."

For years, Oklahoma educators and their allies sounded the alarm on vouchers' staggering record of failure in states such as Florida and (especially) Arizona , as they successfully turned back legislative efforts to bring vouchers to their state. But in 2023, governor and privatization champion Kevin Stitt managed to corral enough support for a scaled back and remodeled version called the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act . When Stitt began to push for expansion and the lifting of spending caps, public education advocates were not surprised.

"What we are seeing and hearing in Oklahoma is exactly what we said would happen if vouchers came here," says Erika Wright, founder and leader of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition . "This voucher law will grow, and it is going to put us in a situation where we don't have enough revenue to cover basic services across the board, not just public education. ... Ten years from now, we could look like Arizona."

Arizona's 'Billion-Dollar Boondoggle'

So, what is happening in Arizona? Simply put, chaos. The state passed a voucher law in 2012 and a decade later- against the will of the voters -expanded it to become the first universal voucher program in the country. Any family in the state, regardless of income, was now eligible for up to $8,000 of taxpayer funds a year.

The program soon became a runaway train, barreling ahead with zero accountability (leading to widespread fraud and waste ), and blowing holes through the state budget , while delivering no academic benefits to Arizona students.

Arizona's voucher scheme takes shape in the form of an Education Savings Account (ESA), in which a portion of a state's per-pupil education funding is put into an account that parents can tap into to pay for approved education expenses, including, but not limited to, private school tuition. The annual cost of the program will soon balloon to $1 billion (a "billion-dollar boondoggle," says AZ Governor Katie Hobbs), wreaking havoc on the state budget.

"If other states want to follow Arizona-well, be prepared to cut everything that's in the state budget," Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia told NEA Today in 2024 . "Not just public education but health care, housing, safe water, transportation. All of it."

Unfortunately, many states have followed Arizona. Seventeen states now have universal vouchers. Another 16 states have limited laws.

The 17 states that haven't joined these ranks may soon have vouchers, whether they like it or not. The Trump Administration is pushing a massive federal voucher plan worth $20 billion over four years as part of its budget reconciliation package . In May, the reconciliation bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives, 215-214, and is now in the U.S. Senate.

Voucher's dismal record should have blunted any momentum years ago, says Josh Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University. But then again, privatization, not improved student outcomes, is the goal.

"On any standard of professional evidence that researchers have, you really couldn't find a more comprehensive failure than vouchers," Cowen says. "Equally ambitious policy schemes have gone the way of the dinosaur for far less worse results."

The Pressure on Rural Communities

According to the National Rural Education Association, rural schools serve almost 10 million students , and nearly half are from low-income families.

Although the impact of vouchers is being felt in schools and neighborhoods across the nation, it is rural students, their families and their communities who will withstand the worst of this assault on public schools.

Due to significantly smaller populations, rural communities raise less in local taxes, leaving their schools much more dependent on state funding. Vouchers will only worsen an already perilous situation. Any further decrease in these funds-a certain ty under vouchers-can quickly lead to cutting things like sports, art classes, and after-school programs.

"When programs are eliminated, families look to other schools and students leave," says Phil Downs , a professor at Trine University in Angola, Indiana. Even modest declines in student enrollment will lead to more funding cuts.

Eventually, many rural public schools may be forced to close, severely hurting the communities relying on them-a trend already being felt in several voucher states, including West Virgnia and Arizona.

"In Indiana, we're hearing more calls for district consolidation," says Downs. A former teacher, principal and school superintendent, Downs has been tracking the financial impact of the state's 14-year-old voucher law, which became universal in 2024.

Downs' analysis reveals how districts such as Indianapolis and South Bend, with an abundance of private schools, have seen a major influx of funding while smaller rural districts have incurred a net loss.

Facing this budget crunch, many of these small districts look to local levies and bonds to pay for programs, a steep hill to climb. "It's a lot of pressure on rural communities," says Downs. "Because it means a larger tax burden on residents. In Indiana, some succeed, but most fail. And soon, these small schools find themselves in a downward spiral that they can't escape."