School vouchers, in theory, give low-income students the opportunity to attend the same parochial and private schools their wealthier counterparts can afford. In practice, they siphon money away from already-struggling public schools and into organizations that routinely expel kids for being gay. And no one is doing anything about it.
The amount of tax money being diverted away from public schools and into the coffers of openly hateful religious institutions isn't pocket change — according to Alex Morris at Rolling Stone, it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And the spigot keeps opening wider.
Georgia, along with 11 other states (Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, Rhode Island, Iowa, Indiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Hampshire, Louisiana and, most recently, Alabama), has adopted laws – sometimes referred to as "neovouchers" – to grant dollar-for-dollar tax credits to people who donate money to provide children with scholarships to private schools. In theory, such a plan has the potential to help a lot of students, but in practice, especially in deeply religious places like Georgia, it has also meant that millions of dollars have been redirected from public funds to privately run Student Scholarship Organizations, which can then funnel the money to schools with strict anti-gay policies. Because the money goes straight to the SSO and never actually enters the public coffers, it's free and clear of being considered a "public fund" – allowing church and state to technically be kept separate. All of which may sound fishy, but consider this: It's fully legal because the laws make it so. And, as the school-choice movement gains ground, it's certain that other states will soon pass similar legislation.
For a depressing, but thorough rundown of exactly how private Christian schools suck up voucher funds and then expel gay kids simply for existing, check out Alex Morris's great work in this month's Rolling Stone. For as the Lord said, "Lo, no homo."