Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana speaks to reporters in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The heated debate over school choice initiatives took center stage Wednesday during a hearing before a U.S. Senate panel.
President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans in Congress have made school choice a central plank of their education agenda, including comprehensive school choice National School Voucher Program Embedded in the huge GOP tax and spending cuts bill that Trump signed into law in July.
The hearing came in the middle of the U.S. Department of Education’s National School Choice Week synchronized a “time to highlight the many different types of education in the United States and give families the opportunity to choose the best learning option for their child’s success.”
The generic term “school choice” refers to alternative programs to the assigned public school. Opponents argue that these efforts deprive school districts of significant funds and resources, although supporters say the initiatives are necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.
Senator Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which held the hearing, described school choice as “the way to express the innovation that we need to meet a student’s needs.”
“Traditional schools work for many students – but we demand giving parents choice when they don’t,” the Louisiana Republican added.
Many models for school choice
Advocates in Ohio and Florida praised the work of their respective organizations and the broader school choice efforts in their states.
Cris Gulacy-Worrel is vice president of Oakmont Education, an operator of dropout recovery charter schools serving more than 5,500 students in Ohio, Iowa and Michigan.
Gulacy-Worrel said last year that Oakmont Education “has graduated 1,309 students and we have placed over 4,500 young people directly into the workforce in the last three years alone.”
“For far too long we have been told that school choice is about (education savings accounts) or public charter schools – that is not the case,” she said. “What we’re really talking about is educational plurality, a system that has room for many models and many paths to success.”
John Kirtley is president of Step Up For Students, a nonprofit scholarship organization that provides scholarships to children in Florida.
Kirtley said his state “is moving toward a new definition of public education: collecting tax dollars to educate children, but then empowering families to direct those funds to other providers and even to other delivery methods that best meet the learning needs of their individual children.”
More than half of them all K-12 students in the Sunshine State participate in a school choice program instead of attending their local public school.
Bernie Sanders sees the creation of a two-tier system
Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, the panel’s ranking member, said that while there are “a number of things we can and should do to strengthen and improve education in the country,” “we should not create a two-tier education system in America – private schools for the wealthy and well-connected and severely underfunded and underfunded public schools for low-income, disabled and working-class children.”
The Vermont independent said that “unfortunately, the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues in Congress are doing exactly that,” referring to the national school voucher program that is now law.
Sanders’ staff is released a committee report On Wednesday, the state laws of 21 states with school voucher programs administered by grant-giving organizations were analyzed to understand the potential impact of the upcoming federal school voucher program.
Among other things, the report concludes that “nearly half of the private schools analyzed (48%) explicitly state that they choose not to provide some or all students with disabilities with the services, protections, and rights available to public school students under federal law.”
Arizona Voucher Program
Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, testified about the negative impact of private school vouchers in the Grand Canyon State.
In 2022, Arizona became the first state in the country Implement a universal school voucher program.
Garcia described her state’s voucher program as “a bloated mess that cost three times more than planned” and said vouchers “often only provide the illusion of choice.”
“Every child deserves a great public school in Arizona,” she added. “Our experience shows that vouchers cannot achieve this goal.”
National School Voucher Program
The eternal national school voucher program, starting in 2027, will provide tax credits of up to $1,700 to individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships.
The program mirrors a comprehensive bill that Cassidy and Republican Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Burgess Owens of Utah reintroduced in their respective chambers in 2025.
Cassidy defended the program during the hearing, saying, “We’re not trying to replace funding for public education – we’re trying to supplement funding for education.”
As of Tuesday, nearly half of all states have joined the initiative Education Department.
