Who We Are
People for Public Schools is a statewide coalition of parents, teachers, community organizations, religious groups, and concerned citizens that promotes initiatives that improve public education and fights efforts to strip funding away from Missouri’s public schools.

What are tuition tax credits “vouchers”?
A tuition tax credit “voucher” is a designated amount of money taxpayers may take as a credit on their state or federal income taxes for expenses associated with sending their children to private or religious schools; often, the credit is also available for public school expenses. However, the lion's share of the benefit would go to families who send their children to private or religious schools because their schooling expenses are higher than the educational expenses of families who send their children to public schools. Tuition tax credits are worth more than tuition tax deductions, and they typically benefit wealthier families more than other families. Tuition tax credits also lead to a loss of state or federal tax revenue and thereby can lead to a reduction in funding for public schools or other vital public services.

What are charitable tuition tax credits "vouchers”?
A charitable tuition tax credit “voucher” is a designated amount of money taxpayers may take as a credit on their state taxes for contributions made to a private, non-profit entity that provides vouchers for students to attend private or religious schools. This approach masks state funding of private and religious schools as support for charitable giving, but in effect it is state funding of private and religious schools and akin to vouchers.

Do People for Public Schools oppose private or religious schools?
No. The People for Public Schools Coalition supports parents' right to send their children to private or religious schools but opposes the use of public funds to do so. The main reason for this opposition is because public funding of private or religious education transfers precious tax dollars from public schools, which are free and open to all children, accountable to parents and taxpayers alike, and essential to our democracy, to private and religious schools that charge for their services, select their students on the basis of religious, academic, family, or personal characteristics, and are accountable only to their boards and clients.