Contact Representative Ron Estes before Friday and let him know you oppose a federal voucher program in the budget bill. Early this morning, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee approved its lengthy section of the House budget reconciliation bill. Unfortunately, the 389-page measure still includes a $5 billion proposal for universal vouchers for private schools and homeschools, even in states like Kansas, which have rejected vouchers.
The reconciliation bill will be heard by the House Budget Committee this Friday, May 16. Representative Estes is the only Kansan on the committee. Please contact his office before Friday to express your opposition to the voucher language in the reconciliation package. Call (202) 225-6216 for his Washington, D.C. office and (316) 262-8992 for his Wichita District Office, or submit an email at this page: https://estes.house.gov/contact/. Rep. Estes’ education staffer is Elizabeth Young:
Elizabeth.Young@mail.house.gov.
If Rep. Estes is your Congressional Representative, state that, and otherwise say you are contacting him because he is the only Kansas member of the Budget Committee.
Ask him to oppose the “Educational Choice for Children” element of the reconciliation bill, which will impose universal vouchers on Kansas.
We oppose this voucher proposal because it will harm the public schools that educate more than 90 percent of Kansas children by diverting tax revenue to private schools and home schools that aren’t required to accept all students and aren’t subject to the same transparency and educational and financial oversight as public schools.
As we have seen in states that already have voucher programs, they end up being used most by wealthier students and those already in private school. They do not help poor students gain access to elite private schools.
Special needs students who attend private schools lose important legal rights and protections.
Vouchers weaken public education, especially in the rural communities where public schools are the social and economic center.
The tax credit element of this bill is a giveaway for wealthy people. Donations that are tax credits are tax avoidance not philanthropy.
Thank Rep. Estes for the opportunity to comment and offer to answer any follow up questions.
