Letters: Trump’s voucher plan will hurt poor students

The president’s proposed budget cuts federal education spending by $9 billion or 13.5 percent. The two-page budget summary said it will shift $1.4 billion into charter schools, private-school vouchers and portability while eliminating $2.4 billion in teacher training and programs that serve low-income students.

This reduction fulfills the president’s campaign pledge to downsize the Department of Education at the expense of the children and does not eliminate the highly paid upper-level bureaucrats.

While I agree that low-income families need more school-choice options, vouchers will disproportionately hurt low-income students since they do not cover the entire cost to enroll in expensive alternative schools. However, vouchers will help subsidize the education of wealthy students. And vouchers would need to be regulated, so that, for instance, the money would follow the child rather than staying with the school if the child leaves. This and refusal to hold failing alternative schools that receive public funding accountable is insulting.

These plans will harm our nation’s most valuable resource: our children and our children’s children.

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Letters: Trump’s voucher plan will hurt poor students."