School Privatization Initiatives: Legal Vulnerability and Implications for Equal Educational Opportunities

• In Event: 52.068 - Litigation Trends in K–12 Education Relating to Students With Special Needs and School Privatization

Abstract

States increasingly are adopting school privatization strategies with expanded student eligibility. This comprehensive study assesses state-level activity pertaining to voucher, education savings account, and tax credit/scholarship programs that allow public funds to be used for private education. It investigates the legal vulnerability of such programs based on state law and explores implications of recent legal developments pertaining to school privatization. Assuming that state high courts continue on their recent trajectory of rejecting challenges to expansive tax credit/scholarship programs, the implications for the democratizing function of education in our nation will be significant. School privatization decisions that policymakers are currently making will affect education in our nation for generations, and the continuation of public schooling hangs in the balance.

Author

• Martha M. McCarthy, Loyola Marymount University