Governor Greg Abbott has called a special session of the Texas legislature, beginning tomorrow, which will consider a school finance reform bill and vouchers, among other things.
The public schools of Texas are underfunded. In 2011, the legislature cut the public school budget by more than $5 billion. Despite a growth in enrollment, that money has never been restored.
Sensible leaders recognize the inequity of the situation and propose an increase of $1.6 billion. But the state senate, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, will not pass the increase without passing vouchers. The state senate has repeatedly approved vouchers while the House has repeatedly rejected them. Both houses are controlled by Republicans.
One of the most consistent voices in opposition to vouchers has been the Pastors for Texas Children.
In this editorial, the Reverend Marv Knox , explains the principled opposition of Baptist ministers to vouchers. Baptists ardently support the separation of church and state.
“If voucher funds are handled responsibly, then their provision will introduce new levels of government involvement in private/parochial education. If the government provides funds—either directly or, more likely, as a pass-through from government to family to school—then it appropriately monitors and regulates those funds. On the other hand, if the government transfers voucher funds to schools without accountability, then it fails taxpayers and creates unprecedented opportunities for graft and corruption.”
Trump wants religious leaders to become more outspoken about politics. This is one example where religious leaders rightly put the common good above government support for religious schools, with full recognition of the dangers inherent in breaking down the wall of separation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
$$$$$ for the FEW using other people’s children. SICK.
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Vouchers enable the rich and middle class to steal funds from the pubic schools that serve the neediest students. Poor students using a voucher would most likely get a worse education than if they had remained in the public schools. There is no actual academic need for vouchers. Despite numerous defeats in the legislature, Abbott and Patrick insist on hammering vouchers into a form they can force Texas to adopt. When does No mean NO?
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Not just Texas. This is what your representatives in Congress are working on this week:
“ADVOCATES OF TAX CREDIT SCHOLARSHIPS ON THE HILL: Proponents of a federal tax credit scholarship plan will host a panel discussion on the Hill today. The event, hosted by the Invest in Education Coalition, a 501(c)(4), is part of a campaign called #EdTaxCredit50. The campaign calls on the Trump administration and Congress to create a “national tax credit to encourage charitable donations to nonprofit K-12 scholarship funds in all 50 states.” Working class families would be able to use the funds to help pay for private school. The Trump administration is interested in the idea, possibly hoping to pass it through a broader tax overhaul, but has yet to publicly get behind a plan.
— More than 100 organizations have joined the campaign calling for a federal tax credit, although the groups have yet to endorse specific legislation, such as the companion bills introduced by Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Todd Rokita. The panel discussion will be moderated by Greg Dolan, associate director for public policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Catholic Education. Panelists include Thomas Carroll, president of the Invest in Education Coalition; Robert Enlow, president of the advocacy organization EdChoice; and Bill O’Brien, executive director of BLOCS Scholarship Organization, which awards funds to families in Philadelphia for private, Catholic school. The event will be held on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center at noon.”
They’ve done absolutely nothing this year for the 90% of kids who attend public schools, but they always find time to promote private schools.
Are there any advocates for PUBLIC schools in DC? I know very few of them attended public schools and of course their kids wouldn’t get anywhere near a public school but since 90% of the kids in the US attend the unfashionable “public sector schools” one would think one or two of the thousands of federal employees would be interested.
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Q Are there any advocates for PUBLIC schools in DC? I know very few of them attended public schools and of course their kids wouldn’t get anywhere near a public school but since 90% of the kids in the US attend the unfashionable “public sector schools” one would think one or two of the thousands of federal employees would be interested. END Q
I live in suburban WashDC. You are correct, that there are few, if any, “advocates” for publicly-operated schools in the federal government. This is entirely understandable. 90% of the funding for publicly-operated K-12 education is provided by states/municipalities. The feds do not have very much “skin in the game”.
Also, most congresspersons/senators were educated at quality non-public schools. There are many millionaires in congress, and nearly all congresspersons send their children to non-public schools. Many (not all) of the federal employees at the Dept of Ed, were educated at non-public schools. Many of the people in the federal Ed department, live in suburban Maryland or Northern VA, where the publicly-operated schools are generally very good.
So you see, the people who develop/implement federal education policy were not educated in public schools, do not send their children to public schools, and therefore, have no direct interest in getting involved at all.
If you wish to influence K-12 education (at the public level), you should apply your efforts at the state/municipal level.
Forget the feds, they do not give a rat’s ***.
Another reason for abolishing the federal Dept of Ed, and returning all policy and funding to the states/municipalities.
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Off topic, sorry. I just read part of your communication with PBS about School Inc. on the Washington Post Answer Sheet, Diane, and am already chomping at the bit to respond to PBS. They claim they can’t represent “the views of each taxpayer equally.” Rheeally? Really! They can sure represent the views of each billionaire donor “equally”!
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LCT,
Thanks for letting me know that the article was posted.
What a lame excuse for selling three hours of air time to rightwing foundations.
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I used to work for a PBS station (engineering, not policy). In a nation of 330 million people, no network can give representation to all views equally. If you really wish to get your views out, you should contact your local station(s). PBS provides programming to stations, which they may broadcast or not broadcast. Local stations determine their own policy.
Underwriters, like the MacArthur foundation, choose to donate to program that they wish to see broadcast. Naturally, the PBS network will develop and broadcast programming that will garner underwriters.
Also, if you wish to influence the types of programming that your local station(s) will broadcast, you should include a donation in your letter. PBS stations rely on contributions from “viewers like you”, to keep on the air. Encourage other people to write in, and express their views. Unlike commercial stations, PBS does not depend on ratings.
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Texas Pastors come through again, here in a particularly succinct post, published in the Baptist Standard, from which you’ve already cited my ‘fave’ paragraph.
I struggle to understand why this viewpoint is not mainstream among Christian Evangelist voters. When I was growing up in ’50’s-’60’s, Baptists were the quintessential ‘Bible-thumpers’– they were the mainstream sect among those w/a literal interpretation of the Bible, not just in my upstate NY but throughout the Bible Belt. To such folk, the imposition of secular govt oversight which inevitably accompanies tax-funded education is anathema. [I admit, as a Roman Catholic, chagrin at how ready our parish schools appear to be to align their curriculum to secular govt ed stds in order to shore up foundering schools!]
This conundrum leads me to wonder whether today’s Bible-thumpers actually believe they have attained so much govtl power thro Tea-Party & libertarian Republicans that they can abandon any concern that taxpayer-funding of their sectarian schools might be accompanied by secular govtl oversight…
But then, they have BDeVos as Secy of DOEd…
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Q I struggle to understand why this viewpoint is not mainstream among Christian Evangelist voters END Q
Unless you have been living under a rock for 50 years, you should know that many Christian Fundamentalists, are thoroughly dissatisfied with most (not all) publicly-operated schools. When “God was kicked out”, with the case of Abingdon v. Schempp (1963), which ended teacher-led prayers in schools, many fundamentalists decided to seek changes.
Publicly-operated schools teach evolution, and other concepts which are at variance with the views of many Christians.
Privately-operated Christian “academies”, and other religiously-operated schools, nationwide, have enabled some (not all) Christians, to get their children out of publicly-operated schools, which are not teaching creationism, and holding prayer sessions.
Many (not all) Christian fundamentalists, therefore support school choice/vouchers, which will enable them to pull their children out of poorly-run and inadequate publicly-run schools.
The views of these Baptist ministers in Texas, are not in the mainstream of the majority of Christian fundamentalists.
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Thank a god for the Pastors for Texas Children!
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Yes to all that, Charles. My point was that, once taxpayer monies are flowing to Christian schools under voucher programs, there will inevitably be a move to make those schools accountable to public stds. Curriculum and assessments will be subjected to public scrutiny, &the public at large may not be thrilled w/underwriting intelligent design etc.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
The beast that won’t die, vouchers.
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