The corrupt voucher program
The Education Freedom Accounts program is a disgrace, especially in these times of higher prices and restrained budgets. It takes public tax money that should be spent for the public good and hands that money over to private individual families.
If a public official was caught pocketing public funds for their own personal use, they would be arrested for embezzlement and viewed as totally corrupt. Yet, here we have a law that makes it legal for citizens, many of them wealthy, to do just that. There is almost no oversight or accountability of this program. Individuals can use it for “educational activities,” a category so loose that it could mean paying for almost anything.
On top of that, much of this money goes to fund religious sectarian education in various forms. This is a violation of the establishment clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution which forbids government from using funds to support religious endeavors.
Finally, Education Freedom Accounts is a theft from local communities. The $60 million that lands in the pockets of private individuals is $60 million that doesn’t come to communities to help them educate the children in their towns. That’s a hefty chunk of change. At a time when local communities are struggling to fund their schools it’s time to claw that money back, kill this program and spend it where it belongs: our public schools.