The Voucher Invasion
Top Story: Covering the Voucher Invasion
Republicans (and their donors) love it. Your readers.…Not so much.
For over 70 years, a national network of wealthy, self-proclaimed libertarians, most of whom sent their children to private institutions, have been funding a highly unpopular project: the mass defunding of American public schools.
They slapped an appealing-sounding name on the initiative — “school vouchers” — and despite the fact that there is little evidence it is helping students (and a lot of evidence that suggests it’s actually a smarmy tax shelter for the wealthy) - they’ve been ramming it through state legislatures ever since.
Fair? No
Getting done around the country? Yes.
But how do you convey that to your readers in a way that helps them activate for their interests?
First and foremost you understand the “school voucher” story is a story about a democratic process gone awry.
Tips on Covering the Voucher Invasion
Don’t call them vouchers.
Headline writers may (and probably should) use the term. But you should be specific about what these bills really are. “School vouchers” aren’t a gift or a give-away — as the term would suggest. They are a means of funneling tax-payer money out of already cash-strapped public schools. And the story is about loss, not gain.
Contextualize the fight.
Vouchers are not a one-off, but part of a pernicious plan to gut American public schools by a minority of wealthy actors with fringe ideas about how this country ought to be. That’s not an opinion. It’s documented and it's historical. Your readers deserve to know the larger threat, here.
Connect this story to 2024.
How candidates plan to vote on voucher-related legislation is important for voters to know before they go to the polls in November.
Want Story Ideas?
The Why Story: Vouchers have not proven to solve the problems that advocates purport to care about. Yet, they continue to push them. Report that.
The David and Goliath Story: Grassroots parenting groups are doing a heroic job pushing back on an initiative coming from a little known right-wing network that likes to stay behind the scenes. Tell this compelling story about local heroes fighting for their communities.
The Reverse Robin Hood Story: Vouchers are overwhelmingly helping wealthy families, in a kind of reverse Robin Hood scenario. Report that.
The Secret Players Story: A lot of the biggest players pushing vouchers on your beat are little known in your community. Who are they? Who funds them? How do they do their work? And how do they justify pushing unpopular policy?
*GREAT REPORTING*
Vox reports on the history of the voucher movement and the actors behind it.
The Hechinger Report cover the PA billionaire backing school vouchers in Texas.
Politico inside the school voucher debate.
Atlanta’s 11Alive calls “vouchers” “state subsidies for private schools.”
You need to know
ALEC’s involvement (via AlecExposed)
Powerful voucher pushers (via LittleSis.)
Expert Jack Schneider
Expert Jennifer Berkshire
We’re Reading
“A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door”
by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire
Comic Relief
Saturday Night Live
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See You Next Week!
Our Staff
Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Managing Editor Christen Gall
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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