00:00Madam President, Democrats have been on the floor for hours today pointing out what's
00:17in this thousand-page bill that took over 16 hours to read.
00:24I call it the thousand pages of pain, the billionaire's gain.
00:32So it's bad enough that my colleagues have been on the floor talking about how this bill
00:38is going to hurt people on Medicaid, taking food away from our children and families through
00:45major cuts to the SNAP program, health care, food, housing, energy support.
00:53You name it.
00:54The pain is in this bill, but one of the areas that people don't know about is this bill actually
01:02has provisions that will take away support for our public schools.
01:07Okay, let that sink in.
01:10It's not enough that this bill has a thousand pages of pain in just about every aspect of
01:15our lives that you can think of, but now they're coming after support for our public schools.
01:20So today I am rising as an advocate for the 49 million children who are enrolled in public
01:29schools across our country.
01:31Nearly 90% of K-12 students go to public schools, including 95% of children with disabilities.
01:42Yet, we have a regime that is actively working to end federal support for public schools.
01:52We have a president who tried to totally eliminate the Department of Education, and sadly for him,
01:59he can't do it through an executive order because only Congress can do that.
02:04they're doing a lot of other things that withhold support for public schools.
02:11So as Republicans in Congress are trying to undermine support for public schools through the first
02:19ever national private school voucher program that is taking money away from public schools and basically
02:39turning it over to private schools through a voucher program.
02:43So let's be clear, the school voucher program, the provision isn't about money for schools.
02:51It's about even more money for billionaires because they're the folks who are going to get the most out of this
02:58voucher for public schools program.
03:01Under this program, wealthy donors would receive large handouts for supporting school vouchers.
03:08So this is why.
03:26The Washington Post in their headline, GOP voucher plan would divert billions, 4 billion a year
03:33in taxes and perpetuity to private schools.
03:39So specifically, the plan would provide a dollar for dollar tax credit.
03:43We're not talking about tax deductions.
03:45We're talking about a tax credit.
03:47This is money that comes right off your taxable amount.
03:51So what this bill would do is provide a tax credit of $5,000 or 10% of a taxpayer's adjusted gross income,
04:01whichever is greater.
04:03So a taxpayer making $10 million, we do have people who make $10 million a year,
04:10could contribute $1 million and receive a credit for that full amount.
04:16How do you like that?
04:17You can get $1 million off your tax bill by contributing to this private school voucher program.
04:24So rather than calling this plan what it is, and I tell you, the word scam comes to my mind.
04:31It's like scamming the public schools.
04:34Republicans are deceitfully trying to sell this plan as an expansion of school choice for families.
04:43Oh, isn't this voucher program great?
04:46More families can send their kids to private school.
04:49Here's the reality.
04:50Based on what we know about school voucher programs, they do not promote school choice.
04:57Let me give you two examples of why this argument does not hold water.
05:02For one thing, school vouchers do not cover the full cost of private school tuition.
05:08When was the last time anybody thought about how much private schools cost?
05:12Maybe, you know, in schools in Hawaii, private schools can cost something in the order of $15,000 to $20,000 a year.
05:22Starting from kindergarten, a voucher program will not support that full amount.
05:29That means that families who want to send their kids to these private schools will have to make up the cost difference.
05:35Well, how many middle-income, low-income families would be able to exercise that choice to send their child to a private school that costs that much?
05:46And not only that.
05:48As we have seen in states that have passed voucher programs, private schools often raise their tuition when they become eligible for vouchers.
05:58Iowa is an example.
06:01After they approved vouchers in 2022, private schools there increased their prices by over 20% for kindergarten and by over 10% for other grade levels.
06:15Here's another example of why this argument that this program promotes choice.
06:21There are fewer private schools in rural communities, so many families do not have access to private schools if they live in rural communities.
06:32How does this expand choice for these families?
06:38The reality is the majority of vouchers have gone to wealthy families and to subsidizing school tuition for students who already attend private schools.
06:50Under this bill, Republicans will make that even worse by prioritizing scholarships for these students.
06:58I'm going to repeat that because not only is it bad enough that we're going to divert all of this money basically to private schools,
07:05but this bill actually has a provision that says the people who will get these scholarships are students who already go to private schools.
07:15In Louisiana, for example, 99% of voucher tax credits there went to families with annual incomes above $200,000.
07:26In Virginia, the number was 87% of vouchers in that state going to wealthy families.
07:33In Arizona, it was 60%.
07:36Americans have consistently rejected school voucher programs and initiatives.
07:42Nebraska, Kentucky, and Colorado have all voted against voucher programs within the last year.
07:51In Nebraska, school vouchers were put on the ballot last November, and they were soundly defeated for the fourth time.
08:01This is not a Democratic or Republican issue.
08:06Nebraska is not a red state.
08:10They voted for a Republican president by a 20-point margin, and yet they rejected school vouchers with 57% of the vote.
08:20The bottom line is, vouchers take money away from public schools, and Americans of all political stripes understand that.
08:30According to All4Ed, over two-thirds of voters would rather increase funding for public schools than increase funding for voucher programs.
08:42That is not a new sentiment.
08:45In all 17 state referendums on school vouchers since 1967, voters have rejected these programs.
08:55While the Republicans in this chamber may not give a rip about public schools, the vast majority of Americans get it.
09:05Democrats, Republicans, independents alike support strengthening our public schools, not taking money away from our public schools,
09:15because they know that strong public education is fundamental to a strong country.
09:22Well, undeterred by public sentiment, Republicans are trying to create, as I mentioned, a nationwide school voucher program.
09:33It's not enough that some states have voucher programs, but now the Republicans, through this misguided almost 1,000 pages of pain bill,
09:42they want to provide $4 billion per year for a private school voucher program, with no accountability.
09:51Remember, early on I said that a huge percentage of children with disabilities go to public schools?
09:59Well, private schools do not have any responsibility to make sure that they are providing education for children with disabilities.
10:07So no accountability, let's just provide $4 billion per year perpetuity tax credit for private school programs that have no accountability along these lines.
10:19We all know that this kind of funding could be used for rural and low-income schools, for students with disabilities,
10:27for other programs that actually support and strengthen public schools.
10:32Instead, under the Republicans' plan, that funding will go to wealthy donors who will receive large handouts,
10:43up to $4 billion a year, for supporting school vouchers.
10:47Again, this plan will enable a taxpayer making $10 million a year to contribute $1 million
10:54and receive a dollar-for-dollar credit for that full amount.
10:58And even worse, the taxpayer could contribute appreciated stock and avoid capital gains on the appreciation.
11:09There's all kinds of data on who owns stocks in this country,
11:13and generally it's the people with a lot of wealth.
11:18So this bill had a provision that enabled people to donate appreciated stocks
11:25so that they could escape capital gains taxes on that stock contribution totally.
11:31So this Republican voucher proposal, outlandish as it is, was briefly delayed
11:39after it was deemed non-compliant with budget rules earlier this week.
11:45Republicans remain undeterred, and they have decided to plow forward with a nearly identical plan.
11:56What it comes down to is this plan does not help students.
12:00It does not promote choice.
12:02It does not support public schools where the majority of our kids go.
12:07We should be supporting our public schools, not taking resources away from them.
12:13So my Democratic colleagues and I will continue to fight to fund quality public schools
12:20to improve public education in this country.
12:24Foundational.
12:25This voucher plan is yet another wrongheaded proposal that should be called out for what it is.
12:33A handout for the wealthy at the expense of hardworking American families.
12:39I urge my colleagues to reject this idea and I yield back.
