Some supporters of programs like these argue that low and middle- income parents need alternatives to poorly performing public schools. The solution to failing public schools, however, is not to use tax dollars to divert students to private schools, and thus create a selffulfilling prophecy. Siphoning dollars away from the public schools is contrary to the premise of a public school system that serves all, with the support of all, and undermines efforts to address the financial problems that many public schools are facing.
As a result of laws passed over the years that provide for “scholarship tax credits,” textbook aid, and school transportation, to give a few examples, it is worth emphasizing that the state already provides substantial taxpayer-funded aid to private (and mostly religious) schools. Now is not the time to provide them more.