Public schools educate 90% of America’s students. They’re open to all students regardless of disability, religion, race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Voucher programs divert public funds away from our public schools to fund the education of a few, select students at private, mostly religious, schools.
Private voucher schools often turn away or expel children with disabilities, LGBTQ students, or students and families who do not adhere to the school’s religious code of conduct. And private school vouchers have a sordid history rooted in racism. First created in the South to allow white students to evade integration orders in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, vouchers were used to fund segregation academies designed to keep black and white students apart.
Students in voucher programs lose the civil rights protections they would have in public schools. They are stripped of their First Amendment freedoms, due process, and other constitutional and statutory rights guaranteed to them in public schools.
In many states, religious schools get the vast majority of funding for private school programs. For example, in North Carolina, 93% of funding for opportunity scholarship vouchers went to religious schools. In Indiana it was worse — fully 99% of voucher funding went to private religious schools.
Most states’ voucher programs do not have any curriculum requirements in place, meaning that the vouchers are paying private religious schools that teach religiously-based interpretations of science, civics, and history.
The Do No Harm Act will help ensure that our laws are a shield to protect religious freedom and not used as a sword to harm others by undermining civil rights laws and denying access to health care.
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