CT Teachers Union Heads Join 32 Others Opposing Private School Vouchers

by Donald Eng

Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias and American Federation of Teachers CT President Jan Hochadel have joined a coalition of union presidents representing educators in states with Democratic governors urging those governors to opt out of the Trump administration’s proposed federal private school voucher tax credit program and publicly reaffirm their commitment to public education.

In an open letter sent today, the two and 32 other presidents of education unions representing millions of teachers, school staff, and public-school employees, warn that participation in the program would legitimize a federally subsidized tax shelter designed to accelerate privatization of public schools.

“Voucher schemes undermine the very foundation of public education by diverting public resources away from neighborhood schools and into private institutions that are not subject to the same standards of accountability, transparency, civil rights protections, or democratic oversight,” the letter reads. “These concerns are compounded by the well-documented history of voucher programs tracing back to efforts to resist school integration following desegregation, as well as repeated warnings from civil rights organizations that modern voucher schemes continue to deepen racial and economic segregation in education.”

Dias said vouchers do not help students in under-resourced public schools.

“It helps the wealthy and advances efforts to privatize public education,” she said. “Think about who actually has $1,700 lying around to make a qualifying charitable donation. It’s not the families these programs claim to help; it’s the wealthy families whose children are already in private schools. If the goal is to help disadvantaged students, the most effective and equitable investment is in our public schools that serve every child.”

Hochadel agreed, saying that Lamont could “‘Trump-proof’ our public school infrastructure, ensure tax dollars are managed transparently and keep local neighborhood classrooms fully staffed and resourced.”

Hochadel also cited a letter-writing campaign to empower local union members and advocates to send their own message to Lamont, urging him to commit to rejecting the plan.

“Participation risks stalling momentum just as we have begun making historic, hard-fought increases to local education aid to remedy over a decade of missed inflationary adjustments,” she said. 

The president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Stacy Davis Gates, and the president of New York State United Teachers, Melinda Person, led the multistate effort.

The voucher program would create a federal tax credit for donations to organizations that fund private school tuition. But data shows that voucher programs primarily subsidize families already enrolled in private schools while draining resources and causing devastating financial consequences in public school systems that serve the vast majority of students, according to the letter. Research also shows that vouchers are academically disruptive and harmful to students and drive more students into schools with discriminatory admissions policies.

The letter notes the program is a core element of Project 2025 and points to the 2024 Democratic National Committee platform, which explicitly opposed “private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education.”

The coalition is urging nearly two dozen governors still weighing their options to show their support for public education, or at a minimum wait until 2027 when the impacts of this program are better understood.

“Democratic governors have long served as a firewall against efforts to dismantle public institutions,” the letter states. “We urge you to continue that leadership now.”