Public Loss Private Gain: How School Voucher Tax Shelters Undermine Public Education

This report by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) exposes how state and federal tax policy promotes the privatization of education funding, while simultaneously draining public coffers to enable savvy taxpayers to turn a profit.

Seventeen states divert a total of over $1 billion per year toward private schools via school voucher tax credits.

When combined with a federal tax loophole, nine of these states’ credits are so lucrative that they allow some upper income taxpayers to turn a profit (at federal taxpayer expense) on contributions they make to fund private school vouchers, all while leaving less resources available for federal investments in education.

Simply put, wealthy taxpayers are benefiting from a federally sanctioned voucher tax shelter.