Gov. Healey should reject the federal education voucher program

 

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Gov. Healey should reject the federal education voucher program   July 5, 2026 By Jessica Tang

A SIGNATURE COMPONENT of the Trump administration’s agenda to dismantle public education is a federal school voucher program that would take effect in 2027. This scheme, from The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, threatens to gravely undermine public education a cross the United States and puts the Commonwealth’s standing in public education at risk.

Vouchers are a product of the anti-integration movement in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, when Southern states began offering “scholarship grants” to white families sending their children to segregated private schools. No matter what you call them, the result is the same—expanded opportunity gaps and increased racial and economic inequity.

The most recent iteration of this plan provides individuals who donate to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, up to $1,700. SGOs distribute the money as vouchers to students to pay for school tuition and fees. By comparison, even taxpayers in the highest income bracket can only claim 35 cents per dollar donated to every other charitable cause, including food banks, disaster relief, and more. No other donation is eligible for a 100 percent tax credit. Governors, including Gov. Healey, have until the end of the year to decide whether their state will opt in.

In their recent op-ed, Democrats for Education Reform CEO Jorge Elorza and Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce CEO Timothy Murray borrow messaging to make it appear as if their privatization efforts are new and innovative.

In fact, this is just a new way to achieve the same ends as direct private school vouchers.

As the highly-respected Brookings Institutution explains, “tax-credit scholarship programs, like ESA [education savings account] programs, are variants of school voucher plans that were designed to skirt the legal and political obstacles facing vouchers.”

Some basic facts are in order.

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