What is so bad about opening up the voucher program to religious schools?
The core issue is that individuals would be paying tax money to support schools with religious values that might be antagonistic to their own religious values. Religion is a profoundly private matter and should remain that way. Some voucher plans allow low-income students to attend private schools. Isn’t that a move toward more equality? Some low-income families might benefit from voucher plans. But most poor people would still go to public schools, and these schools would have fewer resources because taxpayer money would be going into private schools. Most important, the moving forces behind vouchers hope to ultimately open vouchers to all students, not just low-income students. Quite frankly, low-income students are being used as pawns in a much larger struggle to privatize our system of public education. If policymakers who promote vouchers really want to further equity, they should consider vouchers in the range of $10,300 — the median tuition at private high schools in the Nation
