Opening its voucher program to high income households could mean a $600M hit to Indiana's budget this year. Wealthy parents whose children already attended private schools get a massive subsidy on tuition payments, and taxpayers foot the bill. #msleg indystar.com/story/news/inv…

A key theme in The Privateers is how Trump + Christian Nationalism rescued vouchers at a dangerous moment as horrific academic results emerged from these schemes. The new rationale is a retrofitted Brown-era case to separate kids from each other. josh-cowen.com

The Privateers is covered in this great new column Lexington Herald-Leader Linda Blackford on the national right-wing billionaires trying to force school vouchers into the states. Their schemes hurt kids’ academic outcomes, so they went hard into culture warring instead.

It’s here🎉! I’ve been waiting for this from ⁦Josh Cowen⁩ for months. 🥳

It’s always the Koch, DeVos and Bradley groups that get angry when anyone calls them a right-wing billionaire-backed network instead of just “parents.” But “parents” didn’t put school vouchers into 2 of the first 3 paragraphs of Project 2025’s education chapter.

A good “it’s about Christian Nationalism” test for voucher lobby groups is how their org answers two ?’s: Was Dobbs rightly decided? Should taxpayer-funded voucher schools get to expel LGBTQ kids, pregnant teens, or kids whose parents divorce because “it’s the school’s creed?”

Periodic reminder that the voucher lobby has to go to these lengths because vouchers have never actually won a statewide ballot initiative. Same general problem as their ideological cousins have: the rollback-reproductive-freedom crowd. Actual voters hate all this stuff.

Parents deserve something like this for voucher schools so they can compare results against the claims made by predatory voucher lenders. As a start: all voucher-funded kids need to be part of state longitudinal data systems.

How can we address the early childhood compensation and benefit crisis? To discuss, @Jeanaross4Kids leads a conversation with Dr. Lisa Roy, Emily Laidlaw, and Juanita Brent. #ECLS24

🎤📚 DON’T MISS: Join SOSAZ in conversation with Professor Josh Cowen, author of the new book, “The Privateers” at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Sept. 18th! There is no charge for this incredible event, but space is limited so register ASAP: bit.ly/CowenCHB

We should, all of us, be incandescent with rage on Mr. Guttenberg’s behalf at JD Vance’s answer. And at the collective shrug that it represents.

I’ll be at several independent bookstores and book festivals this fall talking about The Privateers. I’m making a point of visiting states with voucher disasters—or those trying to keep disasters away. Arizona is a warning sign to the rest of the nation.

Here’s the Lexington Herald-Leader Linda Blackford column covering The Privateers and reprinted nationally AOL.com For folks who want to read the whole piece. Harvard Education Press aol.com/amendment-2-ky…

Where is GOP resistance to MAGA authoritarianism going to come from? Backlash to the school culture wars & opposition to vouchers. You can hear it happening in latest Have You Heard featuring Karin Chenoweth and Courtney Gore on.soundcloud.com/4wKizqCQ6BmdH8…

Vouchers are education’s predatory lending in part because they sell the false promise of opportunity for all. It’s the school’s choice, not school choice.

🙏 #theprivateers

On Wednesday, the MAGA House marks up a DeVos voucher scheme one day after my book The Privateers is released—thus making my point: With vouchers causing some of the worst academic losses ever seen, right-wing billionaires have turned to Christian Nationalism to sell the story.

Voucher🧵👇