Editorial: Voucher plan would decimate public schools San Antonio Express-News
In a session that should be focused on school safety after the Uvalde massacre, teacher pay and retention, and permanent and equitable school funding, the top education priority for our state’s GOP leaders is vouchers.
It would be a seismic change in policy that would defund public schools, shift tax dollars to private schools and, research suggests, assist wealthy families.
Funneling funds to private schools via various school choice vouchers programs is wrought with moral and logistical pitfalls.
But school choice is a promise Gov. Greg Abbott has made, couching vouchers as a way to empower parents who are fed up with public schools and so-called liberal agendas.
“Parents should not be helpless,” Abbott said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Parent Empowerment Coalition at Annapolis Christian Academy in Corpus Christi. “They should be able to choose the education option that is best for their child. The way to do that is with ESAs — education savings accounts.”
But Texas parents already have rights in the state’s education code, and they have plenty of choices for their children’s schooling. They can choose to send their children to traditional public schools, sometimes even outside of their district. They can also opt for public specialized magnet schools or independently run public charter schools, or they can home-school.
Clay Robison, Texas State Teachers Association spokesperson, told our Editorial Board, “School vouchers, education savings accounts, scholarship funds, whatever they want to call them, are a bad idea. They’ve always been a bad idea. Our public schools are underfunded. Let’s not take money from them to give them to private schools.”
One proposed bill, Senate Bill 176, authored by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, aims to create an education savings account to give parents state funds to pay for their children’s private school, online schooling or private tutors.
Under Middleton’s bill, families who opt out of the state’s public education system would receive the average amount of money it costs Texas public schools to educate a child, which is currently about $10,000 a year.
However, there’s no guarantee students would get a better education. Unlike traditional public and charter schools, there is no oversight on private schools’ curriculum, accountability, teacher requirements or spending.
Public schools are inequitable and underfunded. Subsidizing private schools would exacerbate these inequities. Texas, second only to California in the size of its K-12 student population, ranks 44th in spending and 39th in funding. Why not invest in better funding public education?
Even if private schools did accept every student who applied, they don’t have the capacity for every Texas child. But private schools, which choose their students, are also often out of reach for students who are low-income, special education or at-risk.
Private schools also are often inaccessible to rural communities, where public schools are not only the main option for education but often the largest employer.
Is it true school choice if not all students would benefit from private schools, and if many — likely the majority — would be stuck in underfunded public schools? Our Legislature is required by the Texas Constitution to “establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”
Historically, opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans has obstructed passing vouchers. But Abbott has made clear this is a priority this session, the GOP had a strong election year, and there is pressure to keep up with other Republican-dominated states like Arizona, where this past summer, despite a rejection from voters, the Legislature approved the nation’s largest school voucher program, which education experts oppose.
The message this effort to defund public schools sends to teachers, students and families is that Texas’ elected leaders prioritize funding our state’s wealthiest parents, those who already can afford the average $9,000 to $11,000 in tuition at private schools. They’d do it at a cost of undermining the public school system. And they’ll fan the flames of culture wars to get it passed.
In Corpus Christi, Abbott said: “Parents are angry today about social agendas being pushed on our kids in our schools in Texas and that is unacceptable. Schools are for education, not indoctrination.”
But a recent poll from the Charles Butt Foundation found 89 percent of parents were satisfied with their child’s public school education, so public schools must be doing something right.
Diverting funds from our state’s public schools, which should be safe places where all Texas children can access a quality, equitable education, would be irresponsible and immoral.
Abbott gets an F for championing vouchers.
