Stamm

A new federal initiative would siphon taxpayer dollars away from public schools, and it’s imperative that Michigan opt out.

Tucked inside the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is a provision that should alarm every Michigan parent, educator and taxpayer: the Education Choice for Children Act (ECCA), the first-ever federal program to funnel public money into private schools. Under the guise of expanding choice, it creates a tax credit scholarship scheme that threatens to destabilize the public school system, which serves the vast majority of Michigan’s 1.5 million students. We should all make it clear that Michigan wants no part of it.

While we are still waiting for the federal government to release all of the program’s rules, we do know this: taxpayers can donate to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) and claim up to $1,700 annually as a federal tax credit. Those organizations then distribute scholarships to families for private school tuition and expenses, and the SGOs are allowed to pocket up to 10% of the donations for their own administrative costs.

Supporters frame this as a win for families who are seeking more schooling options. However, Michigan is already home to a wide landscape of public schools, charter schools, private religious and non-religious schools, and school of choice programs.

Research from states with existing voucher programs consistently shows that the overwhelming majority of families who use vouchers were already enrolled in private schools, meaning vouchers largely subsidize families who were already paying for private education, not families searching for alternatives to struggling schools. For the families who most need educational options, vouchers routinely fall short. The scholarship amounts rarely cover a full private school tuition, leaving families with lower incomes unable to bridge the gap. Plus, students with disabilities are often excluded from “choice” because private schools are not required to provide special education services, and they are legally permitted to turn away students whose needs might be expensive to meet.

For Michigan’s rural communities, the problem is even more stark. Thirteen of Michigan’s 83 counties, all of which are in rural areas, have no school option outside the local public school district. In much of our state, there simply is no private school to choose, especially for those looking for a non-religious schooling option. Vouchers offer these families nothing, while quietly draining the public education system that are so vitally important for their children and communities. In the Alpena area, Alpena and Presque Isle counties have just two private schools each, both religion-based, and Alcona and Montmorency counties have no private schooling options at all.

The financial drain on public schools is harmful to communities. Public school funding in Michigan is tied directly to enrollment. When students leave, funding follows them out the door, but the fixed costs of running a school building do not shrink at the same rate. Fewer students means fewer dollars, but the lights still need to stay on, the teachers still need to be paid and the buses still need to run. Vouchers disproportionately hurt rural areas where strong public school systems are often the center of the community. We know from states with voucher programs, such as Arizona, that these programs can and do lead to school closures.

Michigan has spent the last several years making serious, targeted investments in our public schools — in literacy coaches, in student support programs, in closing the gaps left by decades of underfunding. Those investments are beginning to pay off in meaningful ways. Literacy instruction is improving. Students are benefiting. This is not the moment to introduce a program that would take resources away from that progress.

Voucher programs have never once been approved by voters anywhere in the country. Michigan voters have rejected them twice, most recently by a wide margin in 2000. Michiganders have been clear that they don’t want this kind of program. It’s critical that our state listens to them and opts out of the ECCA.