Disability advocates are challenging school choice programs, which typically give families a voucher to be applied to private school tuition, speaking out against the potential harm to students with disabilities. Disability advocacy groups played an important part in defeating voucher measures on the ballot in Nebraska, Kentucky and Colorado in November, siding with teachers’ unions and pro-public school education groups.
Support for disabled students and public schools cuts across party lines and is a formidable force in opposing vouchers, said Jessica Levin, litigation director at the Education Law Center, which advocates for public education. In Kentucky, a ballot measure to allow vouchers lost roughly 65% to 35% — the inverse of Donald Trump’s margin of victory in the state.
