How will school vouchers help my students?

I have taught Samantha for two years now. She is whip smart, like her sister, but with more confidence. She loves to read and, even though she resists the novels I assign, she ultimately relents, often at the urging of her mother.

She does not own a laptop, but she does carry an iPad with her in hopes of completing her dual enrollment work. She lives in Philipp, an unincorporated community of a little less than 800 people. Even for Mississippi, Philipp is small. 

In his first public address as the newly elected Speaker of the House in Mississippi, Jason White targeted school funding as a major legislative issue. No argument there. In his speech, White also argued that parents should have more say in where our public money goes, tacitly connecting Mississippi’s education funding to the school voucher system. 

Proponents of school vouchers in America have been fighting for more parent choice for many years, often with little result. In fact, as of 2020, no states had programs that promoted universal-private school choice. However, after changing the name from school vouchers to empowerment scholarship accounts, supporters have found some success. 

Currently, 13 states have adopted some form of ESAs, with states like Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas considering the policy. Mississippi has had an ESA program for special needs students on the books since 2015. The program offers parents of students with special needs a total of $7,089 that can be used to send their child to schools better equipped to address those needs or purchase educational materials that may help their child succeed. 

Many proponents of ESAs in Mississippi and elsewhere would like to see these programs expanded, like lawmakers have done in Arizona. Money would most likely be diverted from public education and given to the parents to spend on private school tuition or resources like laptops, educational software, or tutoring services. But the decision on how to spend the money is really up to the parents.

The Mississippi Center for Public Policy calls this “parent power” and urges legislators to take advantage of the momentum that ESAs have created throughout the country and enact similar legislation in Mississippi. The money, proponents argue, would ultimately benefit all students in the state, even the ones in rural areas. 

I wonder about Samantha. Philipp lacks the infrastructure needed to support the educational opportunities of its younger residents. There is little cell service or access to high speed internet. There is no Wal-Mart or Dollar General or tutoring agency. The nearest private school is over thirty minutes away. Aside from a laptop and some basic school supplies, I struggle to imagine how Samantha’s mother — a woman fiercely devoted to her child’s education — could effectively spend this money.

If we aren’t careful, the money allotted to ESAs could be used to defund public schools and benefit only those households living above the poverty line, rewarding students who are already enrolled in private school. We’ve seen in Arizona how an ESA program with no accountability can quickly lead to frivolous spending on ski passes and ninja lessons.

While ESAs may look on the outset like a useful way to give power back to the parents, we need to ask ourselves which parents we are empowering. Will students like Samantha benefit from a tutoring service located an hour away, a private school that she has no way to drive to, or a software that requires reliable internet?

If we are truly trying to empower all parents, then we need a more rigorous framework with which to think about ESAs. States need strict guidelines dictating how the money is spent, how parents are held accountable, and how private schools are educating students with public funds. We also need a way to address the mountain of obstacles that students like Samantha face while living in extremely rural areas of the country.

I saw Samantha at a Mexican restaurant a few months ago. My initial thought was not the usual greeting when a teacher sees a student outside of work — an interaction that can be equally awkward for both parties involved. Instead, I thought: How did you get here? I found out later her sister drove her, but the question sticks with me now, not because of the anomaly of seeing a student outside of work, but because Samantha lives so far away from everything. 

And so I ask proponents of ESAs a similar question: How can we help Samantha?

— John Fredericks is the ninth and 10th grade ELA and AP English Literature teacher at West Tallahatchie High School in Webb, Mississippi and is a 2023-2024 Teach Plus Senior Writing Fellow. His work has been featured in Newsweek, The Hechinger Report, and The Nevada Independent.