They may contribute financial aid to support private schools through their church or by direct voluntary contributions. According to research, if a substantial number of students in school districts use vouchers, the economic impact on public education will be negative. If public schools serve smaller and smaller proportions of school-age children, they will lose not only millions of dollars in state funding, they will also experience dwindling public support for local funding. The resources for public schools will diminish as more taxpayer money is diverted to private and religious schools. The contrast between how private and religious schools operate compared to public schools is an important distinction.
Private schools are free to operate as they wish and are subject to little or no public oversight.
Public schools are democratically controlled and must follow publicly determined rules regarding admissions, special education students, teacher qualifications, curriculum, testing, and information disclosure. A recent U.S. Department of Education report states that private and religious schools are unlikely to participate in a voucher program that would require them to meet accountability standards in key policy areas such as admissions, student testing, curriculum and religious training. The report summarizes that a regulated voucher system would erode the autonomy and independence of private and religious schools. The report also indicates that an unregulated vouchers system may preserve private and religious autonomy, but will not allow taxpayers to determine how their tax dollars are spent. A recent poll shows that the public would expect private and religious schools that received public dollars to be regulated and held accountable for the use of these dollars, in effect, turning them into public schools.