Of the 46,675 students who could have used educational vouchers from the Puerto Rico Department of Education’s School Choice Program to transfer to private schools over the past six years, only 2,570 did so, or 5.5% of the total.

Data provided by the Department of Education following a public records lawsuit show that applications have dropped substantially since the program began. For the 2020-21 school year, the department received 9,027 applications. Last school year, it received only 2,134.

Although the Department of Education has not formally evaluated how the program has been received, an online survey conducted by the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) found that the voucher does not cover the full cost of attending a private school, the department notifies selected applicants when classes are about to begin, there is some distrust of the lottery system used to select recipients, and the program receives little promotion.

A certificate, or voucher, from the School Choice Program covers an average of 53% of a private school’s enrollment fees and monthly tuition for one year. Applications for the vouchers have declined significantly since 2023.

The 2018 Education Reform Act established that vouchers could be awarded to no more than 3% of total student enrollment each school year. The annual voucher budget has never exceeded $1.2 million. Had the Department of Education awarded the average voucher amount to 3% of the student population, it would have spent more than $18 million a year on educational certificates.

But Félix A. Pérez Rivera, who served until July as interim director of the Office of Alliance Public Schools, which oversees the School Choice Program office, said the low percentage of students receiving vouchers is because “applications generally do not meet the requirements.” Pérez Rivera attributed the decline in applications to the fact that the amount granted by the certificate does not cover a full year at a private school.

Attending a private school in Puerto Rico costs an average of $4,403 a year, according to estimates from the Puerto Rico Department of State’s Office for the Registration and Licensing of Educational Institutions. The average voucher, which may be used only for monthly tuition or enrollment fees, is $2,336 per student per year. Parents or guardians must cover all other expenses associated with attending the private school they select.

Vouchers are awarded through a lottery. The selection process takes into account the applicant family’s income; whether the student has a severe disability; whether the student is adopted or living in a shelter; whether the student has been a victim of violence or bullying; whether the student has an IQ of 130 or higher; and the student’s grade-point average, with priority given to students who are academically behind. Parents of participating students must make sure their children meet all requirements of the receiving school, including taking the standardized tests required by both the Department of Education and the selected private school.

“I applied once, and they provide very little information about the lottery process. The response comes so late that you don’t have time to prepare for the school year. It’s as if they don’t want the vouchers to be used,” Leylani M. Colón Grau said in a survey circulated by the CPI on Facebook.

Like Colón Grau, Yeidymar Ruiz said she applied to the program for three consecutive years, “and they never awarded me one. They always said it was a lottery.”

Another Facebook user, Tirzah Rivera, said that several members of her family have received vouchers, but that this year she did not see any announcement about the program on the Department of Education webpage.

Since the program was created six years ago, 91 private schools have participated, collectively receiving $6,064,118.45 in public funds from the Department of Education. Half of those institutions are religious schools.

Under School Choice Program regulations, participating institutions may not discriminate against students enrolled at the school. The CPI asked Mercedes Gauthier Vélez, the program’s interim director, how the Department of Education ensures that a religious school does not discriminate against a student or family that does not practice a religion.

“Parents or guardians choose the school based on the family’s needs and the student’s interests. We have schools from all sectors participating. The Department of Education does not intervene in the selection,” Gauthier Vélez said in a written statement.

Each time a private educational institution bills for a participating student, it must submit attendance and academic progress reports for that student. Schools must also notify the Department of Education within five days if a student is expelled or withdrawn.

Families Praise the Schools but Fault the Department

An advertisement published in 2019 in one of Puerto Rico’s major newspapers prompted Nélida Flores Sánchez to visit the Department of Education headquarters to learn about the School Choice Program, which was launching that year as a pilot.

“I think I was one of the first [to participate],” said Flores Sánchez, the mother of a high school senior. With the voucher she received, she enrolled her son at Colegio Nuestra Señora de Altagracia in San Juan.

“The experience was good, but they [the Department of Education] responded very late. The process is overwhelming,” Flores Sánchez recalled. The agency confirmed on the same day classes began at Escuela Julián Blanco that her son had been accepted into the program and could attend the private school.

“He did very well there. He stayed through eighth grade. The school had to close because of financial problems,” she added.

She would recommend applying for an educational certificate only to families who “can afford to pay extra, because someone who isn’t working can’t afford a private school. And that one [Nuestra Señora de Altagracia] was among the least expensive.”

Flores Sánchez said the Department of Education also failed to explain that “the kids lose their right to Special Education services. My son had a transportation stipend, and he lost it. He almost lost his therapies. The private school did not provide reasonable accommodations.”

Similarly, Madga Ocasio Borges did not know that her son would lose the psychological therapies he had been receiving as a student in the public school system’s Special Education Program when she accepted a voucher to enroll him at Colegio Católico Notre Dame in Caguas.

“He was able to keep the therapies he received through the Provisional Remedy program. He lost the psychological therapies. The Department did not explain that, but the private school did provide reasonable accommodation,” she said.

“When a student enters the School Choice Program, that student becomes a student at that school, and the student and the student’s family must follow the school’s academic and disciplinary guidelines and structures, protocols and curriculum. Each institution determines the programs it offers. Therefore, if a child receives therapies through the Department of Education, the private institution the family chooses is not required to provide them if they are not among the programs it offers,” Wanda Ayala de Torres, executive director of the Puerto Rico Private Education Association, told the CPI.

Ayala added that students enrolled in the Department of Education   Special Education Program have the right to continue receiving their therapies, but outside the private school’s regular school hours.

Ocasio Borges was also among the first mothers to participate in the School Choice Program pilot. Her son, now a college student, is legally blind.

“When he moved on to high school, he went to a larger school, José Gautier Benítez in Caguas. He never had a full week of classes. He would wander off around the surrounding area; on the first day, he went to a pizzeria by himself,” she said, explaining why she chose the voucher option and enrolled him in the Caguas private school, which was also much closer to her workplace.

She acknowledged that the first year she received the voucher was stressful because the Department of Education notified her of acceptance to the program by email on a Sunday, and classes began the next Wednesday. Still, the private school gave him uniforms during his first year and a discount on books.

“I have no complaints at all. They treated him wonderfully. It was the best thing that could have happened because they prepared him there for everything he needed to face the challenges of university life,” Ocasio Borges said. She added that she had to adjust and save money to cover half of the private school’s annual expenses.

On the CPI’s Facebook page survey, another user said that at the school her daughter attends, “there were problems because some monthly tuition payments [made by the Department of Education] went unpaid, and some parents said they didn’t know they had to cover the remaining amount. If the Department of Education   gives them $2,500 annually, they would still have a shortfall to cover because at this school the enrollment fee alone is $1,000 and monthly tuition is $300, plus books and other mandatory activities.”

Participants in a survey circulated by the CPI said they took part in the program and had to pay more than $1,500 out of pocket to cover a full year at the institution of their choice. Another respondent said the additional amount was less than $500.

The Schools That Benefited Most

The schools that have received the most funding through the School Choice Program are Academia Presbiteriana in Carolina, Colegio San Benito in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy & High School, a specialized school in Gurabo, Fountain Christian Bilingual School in Carolina, and Academia Cristiana Cohelet in Las Piedras, according to a CPI analysis of data the Department of Education provided through the court proceedings.

Attending Fountain Christian Bilingual School, for example, costs between $4,085 and $4,835 a year in enrollment fees and monthly tuition alone, excluding books, uniforms and fees. Since the school, operated by Iglesia Fuente de Agua Viva, began participating in the program, it has enrolled 109 students from the public school system.

The school operates at the former Escuela Julia de Burgos in Carolina, which the Department of Education   closed in 2017 and Fountain Christian Bilingual School Inc. later purchased for $612,000.

Fountain Christian Bilingual School’s website states that to enroll a student in preschool, guardians must have the child undergo a psychometric assessment with a psychologist of their choice, be interviewed by the academic director and take a placement exam. At the elementary level, students must have a minimum overall average of 80%, while middle and high school students must have at least 85%.

Colegio Católico San Benito in Mayagüez, registered with the Puerto Rico Department of State in 1966, has enrolled 130 students through the School Choice Program since 2020. As part of the enrollment process, all guardians must sign a contract stating: “I agree that my child will be enrolled on probation for the semester in which they enroll.” Enrolled students must maintain a 2.50 grade-point average. The average annual cost of books is $169.

Puerto Rico Baseball Academy & High School is the first high school in Puerto Rico specializing in baseball to be endorsed by Major League Baseball (MLB). In 2019, it established a girls’ softball program. So far, it has enrolled 132 students through educational vouchers.

The specialized academy states on its website that students seeking admission must have a 2.50 grade-point average, complete a tryout “to assess their athletic abilities,” and undergo an interview. According to the institution’s Protocols, Policies and Procedures Manual, the $750 enrollment fee guarantees a place in the admissions process and is nonrefundable.

The school does not provide housing or transportation, but it does offer financial assistance. That aid does not cover books, whose average annual cost is about $360, or uniforms and graduation fees.

The CPI contacted all three educational institutions featured above to ask about their experience with the School Choice Program, but none responded to the request.

The Racist Origins of Vouchers in the US

School voucher programs emerged in the 1950s to give one segment of the education market greater freedom of choice: white parents in the American South. Until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, schools in the United States were segregated, but parents with political and economic power found a way to preserve racial segregation through vouchers they used to enroll their children in private schools that resisted integration.

By the late 1970s, voucher policy was reframed to improve education in urban school districts. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the legal and financial framework for large-scale voucher programs became more firmly established across the United States. Today, educational voucher programs exist in 30 states.

According to the U.S. National Education Association, these vouchers provide no meaningful financial benefit for most low-income families. The organization also argues that, unlike public schools, private schools are not required to accommodate students receiving special education services and may exclude students because of their religious beliefs or academic performance, or because an applicant or a member of the applicant’s family belongs to the LGBTQ+ community.

As recently as April, Tennessee lawmakers approved an expansion of the state’s voucher program. During the debate, lawmakers warned about the higher costs the expansion would entail and the lack of access to the program in rural areas. A report by the state Comptroller also found that students participating in voucher programs did not outperform public school students academically or on standardized tests.

A ProPublica investigation published in July found that the expansion of voucher programs and education savings accounts had enabled the rapid growth of private schools financed with public money but without government oversight.

“It has been a conservative goal for decades to diminish the role of public schools and privatize American education. A surge in private-school funding programs since the pandemic represents significant progress toward that goal. Now about 30 states have some version of a program that allows families to spend public money on private school tuition,” the story said.

The Father Couldn’t, but His Son Did

In 1993, under Gov. Pedro Rosselló González, Puerto Rico enacted Act 71, which created the Educational Vouchers and School Choice Program. The law allocated $10 million from the Department of Education   budget to the pilot program, which sought to “provide equal access to private schools that were beyond the reach of low-income parents.”

The Puerto Rico Teachers Association (AMPR) challenged the law before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, which ruled that using public funds to support private schools was unconstitutional.

Much like the 1993 law, Act 85 of 2018 created the School Choice Program, authorizing educational certificates for up to 3% of students in the public school system. An analysis of both laws published in the University of Puerto Rico Law Review found that the only difference was that the 2018 statute specifically included a voucher option for Special Education students.

Although the AMPR raised the same argument before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court in challenging part of Act 85, enacted under Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevárez, the court ruled that the vouchers did not violate the Puerto Rico Constitution’s provision barring the use of public property or funds to support schools or educational institutions other than those operated by the government.

The School Choice Program did not begin immediately after the Education Reform became law. It launched as a pilot in 2019, according to a certification by the program’s interim director, Mercedes Gauthier Vélez. The first voucher lottery was held in June 2020, with the certificates used during the 2020-21 school year. That year, the Department of Education received slightly more than 9,000 applications and awarded 411 certificates.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.