The time is ripe for a K-12 voucher program
Even prior to the Second Congressional Commission on Education (Edcom 2), discussions have been rife for years about expanding the Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) programs to the lower grades, meaning K-6. The GASTPE Law was legislated in 1989 after a successful pilot by the Private Education Assistance Committee (PEAC) under the Educational Service Contracting (ESC) scheme in the 1980s, the government’s response to congestion in public high schools.
In school year (SY) 2016-2017, Republic Act No. 10533, or the K-12 law, introduced senior high school (SHS) and included learners qualified for the SHS voucher program (SHS VP) as Expanded-GASTPE beneficiaries. All junior high school (JHS) ESC grantees and Grade 10 public completers were considered automatic voucher recipients.
In SY 2025-2026, there are a total of 903,314 ESC grantees in private JHS and a total of 1,242,423 VP beneficiaries in private SHS.
In 2020, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) evaluated the JHS ESC and SHS VP and found them “working reasonably well … but can be adjusted to achieve stated objectives better,” promoting efficiency, student choice, and diversity of providers.
These ADB findings are instructive as the 20th Congress finalizes the bill expanding vouchers to all of K-12. The draft bills from the House and Senate, already approved on third and final reading, prioritize decongesting public schools. Edcom 2 found a backlog of about 165,000 classrooms and another 51,000 facing neglect or possible decommissioning, so the congestion in public schools is real. A 2024 PEAC study revealed that even public K-6 schools were congested, and some 5,500 standalone private K-6 schools lament the lack of government support through subsidy programs, a gap felt during the pandemic. The proposed legislation can change that.
It is, however, important to note that the SHS VP’s initial implementation also intended to address student choice, diversity of providers, and efficiency. As discussions continue on the K-12 voucher bill, several operational matters need consideration.
First, for this program to succeed in transferring students from public to private schools, the voucher value is crucial. Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 11 Series of 2026, covering implementation guidelines for the JHS ESC and SHS VP effective SY 2026-2027, prioritizes public school students as well as the socioeconomically marginalized and those from geographically isolated and conflict-affected areas. However, a 2025 Taft Consulting Group study for the PEAC found ESC grants unchanged since 2017, covering only 26 percent of school fees in National Capital Region and highly urbanized cities and 39 percent elsewhere, with inflation eroding real value by 25 percent. At current values, the socioeconomically marginalized remain less inclined to move to private schools even when prioritized.
The guidelines also revised automatic eligibility for Grade 10 public completers to redeem vouchers—originally meant to make the transfer to private SHS providers seamless, since DepEd lacked seats and classrooms. This compromises student choice and government’s commitment to public-private complementarity.
The twin objectives of decongesting public schools and promoting student choice may both be achieved if voucher values are socialized. The current tiering of voucher values, by school location and grantee category, needs thorough review.
Second, only quality-assured institutions should be allowed to participate. Since 2016, the PEAC has advocated that all GASTPE schools be quality assured; its certification of ESC schools started in 2004 under then DepEd Secretary Edilberto De Jesus. This was never adopted for SHS VP, despite the PEAC’s readiness through its SHS Certification Assessment Instrument, and despite a Commission on Audit recommendation to do so.
As a result, we saw substandard private SHS providers, some now locked in legal battles with DepEd and the PEAC over serious monitoring findings—drawing media attention even as millions of grantees completed quality JHS and SHS programs. DepEd Order No. 12 Series of 2026, under Education Secretary Sonny Angara, intends to correct this.
Finally, ADB in 2020 and the World Bank in 2011 cited DepEd-PEAC co-implementation as cost-efficient and cost-effective, driven by the PEAC’s network of volunteer experts from high-performing private schools, from regional oversight to teacher-training expertise. This history cannot be lost in the proposed Basic Education Voucher Program Act.
In position papers to Congress, the biggest private educational associations—CEAP, PACU, ACSCU, PAPSCU, TVSA, FAPSA, and NAPSPHIL—recognize the importance of preserving implementation continuity, as the “established partnership … reflects both demonstrated capacity and operational efficiency” behind GASTPE’s consistent delivery.
The time is indeed ripe for a K-12 private education voucher. Let this progressive and timely law see the light of day.
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Dr. Doris Fernandez-Ferrer is the executive director of PEAC and is a member of the advisory council of Edcom 2.
