Sen. Hirono: “Republicans are deceitfully trying to sell this plan as an expansion of school choice for families.”
~ Video of Senator Hirono’s speech is available here ~
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) took to the Senate floor to condemn a provision in the Republican tax bill to spend billions of dollars in taxpayer funding on school vouchers by creating the first-ever national school voucher program. The provision would permanently provide $4 billion per year for school vouchers, diverting essential resources that could otherwise go toward strengthening our nation’s public schools. It would also provide massive tax breaks for wealthy “donors” to these programs, all while helping them to avoid paying taxes on capital gains.
“It’s not enough that this bill has 1000 pages of pain in just about every aspect of our lives that you can think of, but now they are coming after our support for our public schools,” said Senator Hirono during her speech. “The school voucher program provision isn’t about money for schools, it’s about even more money for billionaires because they’re the folks who are going to get the most out of this voucher for public schools program.”
During her speech, Senator Hirono highlighted that Republicans are attempting to frame this provision as an expansion of school choice for families, when, in reality, the provision would do little to expand choice for many students—including students from rural communities with limited access to private schools, and students from working and middle-class families. At the same time, the provision would divert essential resources that could go to public schools, which serve 90 percent of all students in our country, including 95 percent of students with disabilities.
“While the Republicans in this chamber may not give a rip about public schools, the vast majority of Americans get it,” said Senator Hirono. “Democrats, Republicans, Independents alike—support funding our public schools, not taking money away from our public schools, because they know that strong public education is fundamental to a strong country.”
The full transcript of Senator Hirono’s speech is available below. Video of Senator Hirono’s floor speech is available here.
So, today I am rising as an advocate for the 49 million children who are enrolled in public schools across our country. Nearly 90 percent of K-12 students go to public schools—including 95 percent of children with disabilities. Yet, we have a regime that is actively working to end federal support for public schools. We have a president who tried to totally eliminate the Department of Education and sadly for him, he can’t do it through executive order because only Congress can do that. But they are doing a lot of other things that withhold support for public schools. So, as Republicans in Congress are trying to undermine support for public schools through the first-ever national private school voucher program—let that sink in. The first-ever national private school voucher program. That is taking money away from public schools and basically turning it over to private schools through a voucher program.
So, let’s be clear. The school voucher program provision isn’t about money for schools, it’s about even more money for billionaires because they’re the folks who are going to get the most out of this voucher for public schools program. Under this program, wealthy donors would receive large handouts for supporting school vouchers. So, this is the Washington Post in their headline, GOP voucher plan would divert billions--$4 billion a year in perpetuity to private schools. So, specifically the plan would provide a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. We’re not talking about tax deductions, we’re talking about a tax credit—this is money that comes right off your taxable amount. So, what this bill would do is provide a tax credit of $5,000, or 10 percent of a taxpayers’ adjusted gross income—whichever is greater. So, a taxpayer making $10 million—we do have people who make $10 million a year—could contribute $1 million and receive a credit for that full amount.
How do you like that? You can get $1 million off your tax bill by contributing to this private school voucher program. So, rather than calling this plan what it is—and I’’ll tell you, the word ‘scam’ comes to my mind, it’s like scamming the public schools—Republicans are deceitfully trying to sell this plan as an expansion of school choice for families.
‘Oh, isn’t this voucher program great, more families can send their kids to private schools.’ Here’s the reality. Based on what we know about school voucher programs, they do not promote school choice. Let me give you two examples of why this argument does not hold water. For one thing, school vouchers do not cover the full cost of private school tuition. When was the last time anybody thought about how much private schools cost? Schools in Hawaii, private schools can cost something in the order of $15,000-$20,000 a year, starting from kindergarten. A voucher program will not support that full amount. That means that families who want to send their kids to these private schools will have to make up the cost difference. How many middle-income, low-income families will be able to exercise a choice to send their child to a private school that costs that much?
And not only that. As we have seen in states that have passed voucher programs, private schools often raise their tuition when they become eligible for vouchers. Iowa is an example. After they approved vouchers in 2022, private schools there increased their prices by over 20 percent for kindergarten, and by over 10 percent for other grade levels. Here’s another example of why this argument that this program [does not] promote choice—there are fewer private schools in rural communities, so many families do not have access to private schools if they live in rural communities. How does this expand choice for these families? The reality is the majority of vouchers have gone to wealthy families, and to subsidizing school tuition for students who already attend private schools. Under this bill, Republicans would make that even worse by prioritizing scholarships for these students.
I’m going to repeat that, because not only is it bad enough that we’re going to divert all this money, basically, to private schools, but this bill actually has a provision that says the people who will get these scholarships are students who already go to private schools. In Louisiana, for example, 99 percent of voucher tax credits there went to families with annual incomes above $200,000. In Virginia, the number was 87 percent of vouchers in that state going to wealthy families. In Arizona, it was 60 percent. Americans have consistently rejected school voucher programs and initiatives. Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado have all voted against voucher programs within the last year. In Nebraska, school vouchers were put on the ballot last November, and they were soundly defeated—for the fourth time.
This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue. Nebraska is [a red state], they voted for a Republican president by a 20-point margin, and yet they rejected school vouchers with 57 percent of the vote. The bottom line is vouchers take money away from public schools and Americans of all political stripes should understand that. According to All4Ed, over two-thirds of voters would rather increase funding for public schools than increase funding for voucher programs. That is not a new sentiment. In all 17 state referendums on school vouchers since 1967, voters have rejected these programs.
While the Republicans in this chamber may not give a rip about public schools, the vast majority of Americans get it. Democrats, Republicans, Independents alike—support funding our public schools, not taking money away from our public schools, because they know that strong public education is fundamental to a strong country.
Well, undeterred by public sentiment, Republicans are trying to create, as I mentioned, a nationwide school voucher program—it’s not enough that some states have voucher programs, but now the Republicans, through this misguided, almost 1000-pages of pain bill, they want to provide $4 billion per year for a private school voucher program, with no accountability. Remember early on, I said that a huge percentage of children with disabilities go to public schools. Well, private schools do not have any responsibility to make sure that they are providing education for children with disabilities. So, no accountability, ‘let’s just provide $4 billion per year, perpetuity, tax credit, for private school programs that have no accountability along these lines.’
We all know that this kind of funding could be used for rural and low-income schools, for students with disabilities, for other programs that actually support and strengthen public schools. Instead, under the Republicans’ plan, that funding will go to wealthy donors who will receive large handouts—up to $4 billion a year—for supporting school vouchers. Again, this plan will enable a taxpayer making $10 million a year to contribute $1 million and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit for that full amount. And even worse, the taxpayer could contribute appreciated stock and avoid capital gains on the appreciation. And, there’s all kinds of data on who owns stocks in this country and generally, it’s the people with a lot of wealth. So, this bill had a provision that enabled people to donate appreciated stocks so that they could escape capital gains taxes on that stock contribution totally.
So, this Republican voucher proposal, outlandish as it is, was briefly delayed after it was deemed non-compliant with budget rules earlier this week. Republicans remained undeterred. They have decided to plow forward with a nearly-identical plan. What it comes down to is, this plan does not help students. It does not promote choice. It does not support public schools, where the majority of our kids go. We should be supporting our public schools, not taking resources away from them. So, my Democratic colleagues and I will continue to fight to fund quality public schools, to improve public education in this country. Foundational. This voucher plan is yet another wrongheaded proposal that should be called out for what it is: a handout for the wealthy at the expense of hard-working American families. I urge my colleagues to reject this idea, and I yield back.
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