National Coalition of Public Education Advocates Responds to Senate Education Hearing, Urges Governors to Block Federal School Voucher Tax Scheme
More than 150 education organizations warn that a tax credit would divert public dollars to private schools and undermine public education nationwide
Read the letter calling on governors to block the siphoning off of hard-earned public education tax dollars HERE.

Watch 1/28/-2026 Virtual Presser: 150+ Public Education Advocates Call on Governors to Block Federal Voucher Tax Scheme

Wisconsin Public Education Network Statement on Gov. Evers’ Leadership in Opting Out of Federal Voucher Scam

As a coalition of public school champions, parents, educators, business owners, and school and district leaders around the state, Wisconsin Public Education Network partners statewide are united in their support of Governor Evers’ bold and brave decision to opt out early from this federal voucher scam.

No one knows better than Wisconsinites what’s at stake - and as the state that launched the nation’s first state funded voucher program in Milwaukee 36 years ago - we know a Trojan Horse when we see one. The architects of this plan are not educators or policy experts - they are lobbyists and partisans and profiteers whose stated goal is to dismantle public education, and who have spent decades doing everything in their considerable power to create chaos and distrust in our public schools. We know that the folks pushing this program are the ones we can trust the least when it comes to keeping our promises to our kids and their public schools. 

Segregating resources and picking and choosing who is “worthy” of our tax dollars is a recipe for disaster and discrimination, both of which have been on full display since our voucher program was launched nearly four decades ago. Vouchers do not improve outcomes for students. Voucher schools do not outperform public schools. They divide and destabilize our communities, deepening segregation along lines of race and class, and open the floodgates to fraud and abuse.

Attempts to pass off this scam as a harmless tax writeoff are a joke, and Gov. Evers refuses to let the kids of Wisconsin become the victim of yet another political punchline. 

Gov. Evers knows all too well what happens when unpopular and unhelpful policy proposals are forced into our classrooms and our communities: the students who most need our support are the ones who pay the highest price.

Gov. Evers knows he doesn’t have to wait for the rules to know what all of us know already: a voucher by any other name is still a voucher, and a scam is still a scam. Letting folks who can afford a huge tax write off designate which schools are worthy of funding is a surefire way to widen existing gaps between haves and have nots and wreak havoc on existing mechanisms designed to ensure that every student in every public school has equal opportunity to learn, to shine, and to thrive.

This scam guarantees the opposite and we applaud Governor Evers for having the courage and the vision to say so, at a time when courage and vision are what our kids need most. We call on all other Governors to follow his lead in standing strong to protect and defend America’s children against those who have proven time and again that they do not have their best interests at heart. Thank you, to Governor Evers and to all who join us today in renewing our collective commitment to our children and to the public schools that unite us.