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Tennessee tried to prioritize low-income families for its new voucher program. It did not work. The state awarded 9,360 of its new vouchers to Priority 3 families, where a household of four can earn up to $173,160 and still qualify. Only 3,970 went to the lowest income category. That is roughly one quarter of all new awards.
Tennessee is not an outlier. It is the pattern.
The data is consistent across every state
Everywhere voucher programs have launched, the same thing happens: families already paying private school tuition claim the funds. Families in underserved public schools mostly do not.
| State | Key Finding | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 70% of new vouchers went to higher-income families (Priority 2 and 3) | Chalkbeat |
| North Carolina | 88.5% of voucher recipients never attended public school | NC Justice Center |
| Texas | 75% of applicants already attended private school or were homeschooled | Texas AFT |
| Arizona | 50%+ of spending went to students who were already in private school or had not yet entered kindergarten | CBPP |
These are not cherry-picked snapshots. This is the enrollment profile of voucher programs nationwide. The programs were sold as lifelines for kids trapped in failing schools. The money went to families who already had options.
Congress just made this the federal government’s problem
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created the first federal private school voucher program. Starting January 2027, any individual can donate up to $1,700 to a Scholarship Granting Organization and receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit.
The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates this program will add $26 billion to the federal debt over ten years. The program has no aggregate cap on total credits. If participation scales, annual costs could reach $8 billion or more.
Meanwhile, Congress flat-funded Title I and IDEA with only $20 million increases each for FY2026. The House Appropriations Committee initially proposed cutting Title I by 26%. Congress rejected those cuts but made no meaningful investment in the programs that serve 50 million public school students.
“Congress sought to impose a 50-state, voucher-like program with hardly any quality control mechanisms or protections against discrimination and waste.” — The Century Foundation
No civil rights protections follow the money
Public schools that receive federal funding must comply with Title VI, Title IX, IDEA, and Section 504. The OBBBA program does not require Scholarship Granting Organizations or the private schools they fund to follow any of those rules. Private schools can reject students based on disability, religion, or LGBTQ+ status and still collect federal tax credit dollars.
What you can do
- Contact your senators and representative. Tell them to support the repeal of the OBBBA tax credit scholarship. Senate Democrats have introduced a repeal bill. Use Resist Bot to send the message.
- Push your state to opt out. States must elect to participate in the federal program. If your state has not yet opted in, pressure your governor and legislature to stay out.
- Demand enrollment data. Tennessee’s legislature just passed a law requiring more demographic reporting on voucher recipients. Every state should do the same.
- Share the numbers. Forward this brief to anyone who believes vouchers help underserved kids. The data says otherwise.
The federal voucher program is the next front in the fight over public education. For the full picture of what state programs look like, read Taxpayers Are Spending $10 Billion on Private School Vouchers Across 18 States and Eighteen States Spend Billions on Vouchers With Almost No Oversight. Track all education fights at the Education hub.