# Why are Democrats opposed to school vouchers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 17, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084 "2013-09-17T19:47:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/61 "2013-09-18T13:02:21Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Does that mean that you’re opposed to large portions of the federal government, which the Democrats generally support and expand? Consider: > > [ul] > [li]The government gives poor people hundreds of billions of dollars in food stamps each year. They use these food stamps to buy food from private companies. Democrats have recently passed a large expansion of food stamps.[/li][li]The government gives tens of billions of dollars in Section 8 housing vouchers, some of which is used to pay private landlords.[/li][li]Under the PPACA, commonly called “Obamacare”, the government will provide subsidies to the poor and middle class, which they will use to purchase private health insurance plans on state or federal exchanges.[/li][li]And there are countless other government programs that function likewise.[/li][/ul] > > So if tax dollars are used to provide vouchers that go to private, for-profit institutions in so many other areas, why not education? All of those programs are means tested, and available only to low income Americans. Would you support means testing for school vouchers? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/62 "2013-09-18T13:03:48Z")
**septimus** , are you able to point out any actual flaws in the research [report](http://www.edchoice.org/CMSModules/EdChoice/FileLibrary/656/A-Win-Win-Solution---The-Empirical-Evidence-on-School-Vouchers.pdf) that I linked to, or are you simply going to ignore the substance of the research while attacking the source? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/63 "2013-09-18T13:09:16Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > All of those programs are means tested, and available only to low income Americans. Likewise school vouchers are only available to the poor and some segment of the middle class, as I’ve already pointed out several times. However, that’s not the point of the post. **boytyperanma** said that he was opposed to taking tax dollars and giving them to private for-profit institutions. Every year, the government does exactly that with hundreds of billions of dollars, and the Democrats in most cases seek to increase that amount. If that’s the excuse that some Democrats offer for opposing school vouchers, then it begs the question of why they don’t apply the same reasoning to every other area of government. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/64 "2013-09-18T13:13:40Z")
> [@SirGalahad](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, educations benefits society overall, not just students and their parents. We all pay for that. My mother took a full time job to send me to Catholic school. She also put a disadvantaged Hispanic child through the same school. That was her choice … she paid for it. What your mother did was very admirable, but I don’t see how it’s supposed to justify opposition to vouchers. It’s great that private philanthropy allows a few poor children to get a good education in private school, but wouldn’t the benefit to society be greater if a much larger number of poor children could escape from failing public schools and get a good education in private school? If education benefits society, doesn’t society beneift more when education is better for as many students as possible? ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/65 "2013-09-18T13:16:56Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > For the same reason many conservatives oppose federal funding of Planned Parenthood, when such a tiny part of their services are abortion related. That’s a fair point. But one needs to keep in mind that the their is a religious AND purely philosophical position that life begins prior to birth and that an abortion is murder. I’m pro-choice, but I do understand and respect that position. With the schools, some hypocritical Dems are willing to deprive poor and middle class families of a choice richer people have (and the better education for their children that it results in) just because a kid will be exposed to the concept of Creationism. That’s both absurd and cruel. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/66 "2013-09-18T13:25:57Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Because private schools can’t and won’t educate the vast majority of kids stuck in failing schools. They will cherry-pick the students they want with scholarships, and the rest will be abandoned with useless vouchers that pay a fraction of a private tuition. Unless eligibility for vouchers is means tested and pay 100% of tuition, this is just subsidies for elitists. So, no poorer or middle class families will be able to make a different choice for their kids with Vouchers of less than 100%? That’s not right. There are people all along the economic scale. Rich people aren’t really helped by vouchers, in that they can send their kids to the school of their choice anyway. The people who are helped by them are those who would like to but wouldn’t be able to without the financial assistance. The larger question is this: Although we might all agree that is it serves society well to have us fund education, why must it be the case that the system that served us well in the past is the one and only one that can serve us well now and in the future. It used to be that no matter where you lived, school was a ticket out and up. Sadly, today that is not the case. For the past several decades we’ve seen inner-city families stuck in poverty for generations. The schools are failing them. We’ve thrown all manner of money at them and it does not fix the problem. We need need a new model for education our youth. Particularly the youth of our poor. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/67 "2013-09-18T13:27:38Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Private schools are less efficient, Private schools that receive vouchers are generally much more efficient than government schools. [As I’ve noted before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15974499&postcount=40), the Washington D. C. voucher program gives $8,000 to students in K-8 and $12,000 to students in grades 9-12. By comparison, the public schools have a reported budget of $20,000 per student. (The actual spending on public schools is probably higher than what’s reported, since dishonesty is endemic in reporting government spending, but we won’t get into that here.) Likewise the voucher program in Charlotte costs much less, per pupil, than the public schools. And in Cleveland. And, as far as I know, in every other city and state that offers school vouchers to poor families. ---
**Author:** ![Farin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@Farin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/68 "2013-09-18T13:36:48Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Likewise school vouchers are only available to the poor and some segment of the middle class, as I’ve already pointed out several times. > > However, that’s not the point of the post. **boytyperanma** said that he was opposed to taking tax dollars and giving them to private for-profit institutions. Every year, the government does exactly that with hundreds of billions of dollars, and the Democrats in most cases seek to increase that amount. If that’s the excuse that some Democrats offer for opposing school vouchers, then it begs the question of why they don’t apply the same reasoning to every other area of government. I don’t mind vouchers, simply because they encourage competition, but I think you’re wrong here. Vouchers should be had by all. Vouchers should be for the amount of money it takes to educate a student for a year (with fractional teacher pay, administrator pay, and all of that factored in). If you charge more than the voucher pays for your private school, you should not be allowed to accept the voucher. So if you are a rich guy sending your child to a fancy school, you get no help. But if you partake in the public school system and think a nearby school (public OR private that doesn’t charge more than the voucher) you should be able to go there, income class not withstanding. If you want to send your kid to a fancy rich school, go for it. But you get no help from the public funds. If you want to send your kid to a private school (with the voucher restriction above) then you should be able to. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/69 "2013-09-18T13:42:57Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > The status quo is this: the government itself classifies almost half its own schools as “failing”, including a majority of schools that serve poor areas. > > How does preserving the status quo “help the public schools not fail”? It seems to me that refusing to make significant changes to the status quo does the exact opposite. It helps the public schools fail. It doesn’t help the public schools not fail. I see what you are saying. I’ll take us on a slight tangent here and mention the power of the school teacher unions, since it has not been brought up yet. Could it be that Democrats opposition to vouchers and support for teachers unions, is generally in line with teacher unions opposition to vouchers? I remember Stossel (who is an advocate for vouchers) did a piece a few years ago comparing our education system to that in Finland, which usually ranks in the top 5 worldwide in education standards and results. In Finland, there is a lack of teacher unions, and everyone can send their child to any school they want, so there is competition for students. The schools are funded by the state per student. The competitive schools delivering results thrive, and others simply go out of business. Schools can be set up in office buildings so there is no required infrastructure to justify funding long-term. Teachers are a respected and well-paid profession. Anyway, that’s the way I remember the piece. Now, I know it was specifically directed at the idea that vouchers work better than our current system in the US, which is up for debate here. **ITR champion** , what are your opinions of a situation like that? What if we had vouchers for anyone, but they could only be used at other publically-funded schools (e.g. charter schools, etc.) and not privately funded schools? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/70 "2013-09-18T14:23:10Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I see what you are saying. I’ll take us on a slight tangent here and mention the power of the school teacher unions, since it has not been brought up yet. Could it be that Democrats opposition to vouchers and support for teachers unions, is generally in line with teacher unions opposition to vouchers? [I think it’s safe to say that they do](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-failure-of-american-schools/308497/). The Democratic leadership, who attend private schools and send their kids to private schools, oppose vouchers or anything else that would bring competition to the public schools because that guarantees a steady flow of money from the teachers unions. But they can’t say to rank-and-file Democrats, “we’re denying kids a good education because we only care about the unions.” Hence they have to offer excuses: that vouchers will go to the rich (a blatant lie as we’ve seen), that it has something to do with religion and creationism, that vouchers will hurt the students who remain in public schools, etc… Those rank-and-file Democrats who actually believe such things are probably regarded by party leadership as useful idiots. > [@](#): > > I remember Stossel (who is an advocate for vouchers) did a piece a few years ago comparing our education system to that in Finland, which usually ranks in the top 5 worldwide in education standards and results. In Finland, there is a lack of teacher unions, and everyone can send their child to any school they want, so there is competition for students. The schools are funded by the state per student. The competitive schools delivering results thrive, and others simply go out of business. Schools can be set up in office buildings so there is no required infrastructure to justify funding long-term. Teachers are a respected and well-paid profession. Anyway, that’s the way I remember the piece. > > Now, I know it was specifically directed at the idea that vouchers work better than our current system in the US, which is up for debate here. **ITR champion** , what are your opinions of a situation like that? What if we had vouchers for anyone, but they could only be used at other publically-funded schools (e.g. charter schools, etc.) and not privately funded schools? Currently tens of millions of poor and middle class students are trapped in failing public schools. I’d support any measure that allows any chunk of them to escape to a better school, regardless of the details of how it’s managed. However, in the USA today, switching to a system like Finland’s is not a realistic possibility. On the other hand, both school vouchers and charter schools have existed for decades in many cities and states, and both are growing as parents get more and more fed up with the quality of their kids’ public schools. I have to throw my support behind the realistic possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/71 "2013-09-18T14:27:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > This. This is the elephant in the living room. A lot of the voucher movement wants to have kids taught religious beliefs (creationism near the top of the list) and at government (taxpayer) expense. Government scholarships and loans for students in higher education can be used at any accredited college or university, regardless of its religious affiliation. I’ve never heard any Democrat demand that such scholarships and loans be eliminated. If it’s fine to give government money to religious colleges and universities, then why not religious schools for K-12? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/72 "2013-09-18T14:39:45Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Government scholarships and loans for students in higher education can be used at any accredited college or university, regardless of its religious affiliation. I’ve never heard any Democrat demand that such scholarships and loans be eliminated. If it’s fine to give government money to religious colleges and universities, then why not religious schools for K-12? This dichotomy probably starts with the assumption that adults have either formed their religious beliefs or are adequately resistant to indoctrination or forced conversion, and are choosing a college fully aware of any doctrinal orientation. There are many funding, oversight and management differences between K-12 and upper education. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/73 "2013-09-18T15:21:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > This dichotomy probably starts with the assumption that adults have either formed their religious beliefs or are adequately resistant to indoctrination or forced conversion, and are choosing a college fully aware of any doctrinal orientation. > > There are many funding, oversight and management differences between K-12 and upper education. I think the main difference is in the scope of choices. With college, you are not bound by geography. But the answer is having more schools locally to choose from, not fewer. Especially where fewer = 1. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/74 "2013-09-18T15:47:56Z")
I’d be happy with vouchers on top of current spending. In other words, every voucher is an additional cost and does not cut into the spending on public schools. Oh, and they would be like Medicaid and not allow schools to charge more than the voucher. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/75 "2013-09-18T15:50:54Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > We shouldn’t use public money to support religious institutions and the inculcation of religious dogma. But you’re assuming that is the point of a voucher system. It’s not. The point is a better education. And if a school is better able to educate kids and have them do better on tests, getting them into colleges, etc., why would you let the fact that a tiny part of the day is spent on some religious instruction—when the parents are choosing to send their kids their, or not? > [@ITR Champion](#): > > It seems a shame if poor children are denied access to a good education merely because of prejudices against religion. [http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/louisiana-rep-valarie-hodges-outraged-funding-muslim-schools#](http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/louisiana-rep-valarie-hodges-outraged-funding-muslim-schools#) [http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/04/03/1815461/tennessee-may-deliberately-exclude-muslim-schools-from-new-voucher-program/](http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/04/03/1815461/tennessee-may-deliberately-exclude-muslim-schools-from-new-voucher-program/) Here we have two states that deliberately included religious schools in their voucher system. Both are aghast that funds might go to a Muslim school. This is just one example of problems with permitting funds to go to religious schools. The state/government should not pay for religious teaching. I feel the same way about universities. I’m actually fairly surprised that nobody has challenged this as of yet. The answer? Keep religion out of schools and in places of worship. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/76 "2013-09-18T16:00:45Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > We shouldn’t use public money to support religious institutions and the inculcation of religious dogma. But you’re assuming that is the point of a voucher system. It’s not. The point is a better education. And if a school is better able to educate kids and have them do better on tests, getting them into colleges, etc., why would you let the fact that a tiny part of the day is spent on some religious instruction—when the parents are choosing to send their kids their, or not? > > " How do you know what the secret agenda is of those pushing Vouchers? Heavily Republican right? Which is heavily Christian? Also, heavily anti-teacher Union? So it may well be to funnel funds away from Secular schools to religious ones. It may be to de-fund the teachers unions. I mean, you are talking the GoP right? Generally anti-education? Do you really think that they want kids to get better education? This is the party that wants to shut down the US government because we elected a Black man as President, bless their little racist hearts. And you _do_ know we have complete freedom of religion here in the USA right? So the school could be Fundamentalist bible teaching all day every day. Hell, it could be a jack-Mormon school teaching the girls to be good little breeder-sex-slaves to their daddies(You don’t need to read & write, just cook, sew and clean- and breed, of course!). It could be a fundamentalist Muslim school teaching only boys and teaching them straight 100% Koran and hate for the great Satan USA. You can’t discriminate. If you fund some generalist middle-of-the-road Protestant school which adds a half-hour of fairly nondenominational comparative religion and five minutes of prayer, you have to fund the Fundies, the Jack-Mormon sect, the Church of Satan and the Koran school. Read Sinaptics great cites: \*"Louisiana Rep. Valarie Hodges was outraged when she discovered that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan, a voucher program allowing state educational funds to send students to religious-run schools, included funding Muslim schools. “We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools,” Hodges said. “I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.” Hodges added that she supported funding only for teaching the fundamentals of the Founding Fathers’ religion: Christianity."\* This is what Vouchers are about- pushing Fundamentalist Christianity. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/77 "2013-09-18T16:08:27Z")
> [@Farin](#): > > I don’t mind vouchers, simply because they encourage competition, but I think you’re wrong here. Vouchers should be had by all. > > Vouchers should be for the amount of money it takes to educate a student for a year (with fractional teacher pay, administrator pay, and all of that factored in)… What do I, a childless man, get to spend _my_ voucher on? Dog Obedience classes? And I guarantee you this- there is already growing resentment from the childless about having to pay so many taxes for ‘_the breeders’_. I support public education myself, it’s a sound investment, but once I see even $1 of my taxes going to teach Creation Science, I am going to campaign against and vote down any and all funding measures. And I won’t be alone. Schools generally get good voter support. This will end. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/78 "2013-09-18T16:09:51Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > **septimus** , are you able to point out any actual flaws in the research [report](http://www.edchoice.org/CMSModules/EdChoice/FileLibrary/656/A-Win-Win-Solution---The-Empirical-Evidence-on-School-Vouchers.pdf) that I linked to, or are you simply going to ignore the substance of the research while attacking the source? **ITR champion** , are you going to point to the “research” being published by a reputable source? Do you think I open Truther/Birther threads and click on the YouTubes to see if they’re “flawed”? I’ll stipulate that the research _might_ even have some validity. But, as I say, there are so many huge lies and misleadings from sources of that ilk it’s just not worth my time to click. FWIW, the whole philosophy it implies – helping public schools through their own _“creative destruction”_ is mostly just Friedmanist-like babble. That philosophy might have some theoretic validity but the practitioners in U.S.A. are inevitably just right-wing hypocrites pretending to want to help. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/79 "2013-09-18T16:13:42Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > [http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/louisiana-rep-valarie-hodges-outraged-funding-muslim-schools#](http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/louisiana-rep-valarie-hodges-outraged-funding-muslim-schools#) > > [http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/04/03/1815461/tennessee-may-deliberately-exclude-muslim-schools-from-new-voucher-program/](http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/04/03/1815461/tennessee-may-deliberately-exclude-muslim-schools-from-new-voucher-program/) > > Here we have two states that deliberately included religious schools in their voucher system. Both are aghast that funds might go to a Muslim school. This is just one example of problems with permitting funds to go to religious schools. > > . Another quote from your cites: \*Ketron has cultivated a reputation as the state’s chief Islamophobe, proposing a bill in 2011 that could have introduced punishments of up to 15 years in jail for any Muslim who observed the holy month of Ramadan or prayed five times a day towards Mecca, a religious requirement for observant Muslims. Tennessee is not the first state to try and carve out exemptions to education funding that target only Muslims. Last year, Louisiana Republicans threatened to hold up an education bill backed by Governor Bobby Jindal (R) for similar reasons: a single private Islamic school had applied for a handful of vouchers that Republicans intended to make available only to nondenominational and Judeo-Christian schools. \* Yes, voucher fans, there is one of your biggest supporters, a Elected official that wants to send all Muslims to prison.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084/80 "2013-09-18T16:28:29Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Why are Democrats opposed to school vouchers? Because in a democratic republic politics is naturally driven by voters and their wallets. Teacher’s unions pledge their money and votes to the party that will do their bidding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-democrats-opposed-to-school-vouchers/669084.md?page=5)