Governor Polis Has Opted Colorado Into the Federal School Voucher Scheme
- Sue Windels
- 6 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Governor Polis claims the federal tax credit program is not a voucher.
Wrong!
School vouchers direct taxpayer dollars to support private and religious schools, and that is exactly what the program does.
For every tax dollar credit contributed to a scholarship program, the federal budget loses a dollar that would otherwise be available in the budget. In this case, it’s a backdoor scheme to be able to claim taxpayer dollars are not being spent in support of private and religious schools. They claim the scholarships are funded with charitable donations, not taxpayer dollars. (wink-wink)
Governor Polis knows the people of Colorado do not support vouchers, yet he continues to mislead the public by repeatedly declaring that this program is not a voucher, even though the scholarships clearly function as vouchers.
Free Money? There is no free money for public schools. Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) are not required to include public schools when awarding scholarships. The money will flow to private and religious schools.
The cost of this program in lost federal tax revenue is estimated to be between $25 billion and $51 billion annually. Currently, the two largest federal education programs are Title I grants to local school districts, totaling about $18.4 billion, and IDEA special education state grants, at approximately $15 billion. This voucher program could dwarf both.
The U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS are in the process of developing rules and regulations to implement the new law. Unfortunately, they appear to be moving toward limiting state authority by prohibiting states from adopting their own requirements or guardrails.
Despite this uncertainty, Governor Polis is pushing Colorado into a rigid, federally controlled voucher system before the rules are finalized and without legislative consideration or voter approval.
Colorado voters are asking why a term-limited Governor Polis is making this decision rather than deferring to the newly elected governor in 2027, who will, hopefully, listen to Colorado voters and opt our state out of a voucher scheme that drains funds from public schools.
A4PEP believes Coloradans deserve transparency, meaningful public input, and respect for the state’s clear history of voter opposition to vouchers.