This report exposes the inaccuracies and hypocrisy of proponents' claims that vouchers represent an opportunity for families of color to achieve a more equitable education for their children. Vouchers have a history of serving racist agendas. California's Proposition 38 allows private schools to discriminate against voucher students. Under this measure, a voucher would be no guarantee of escape from public school. They would be under no obligation to explain to students why they were rejected, and there would be no due process remedies for families who believed they had been discriminated against.
Vouchers exacerbate the existing racial inequality of the public school system.
Voucher experiments in other countries benefit the rich at the expense of the poor and have resulted in lower academic achievement for low-income students. Experts on voucher programs in the United States assert that open-ended voucher programs here would primarily benefit wealthy white families. Most vouchers in the few existing programs in the U.S. go to students who were already in private schools. California's Proposition 38 will leave most students of color in weakened public schools. Proposition 38 has no measures to ensure that the few spaces available in private schools would be equitably distributed.