Texas Governor Greg Abbott called a special session of the legislature to try once again to ram through vouchers, a proposal that has been repeatedly rejected by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The State Senate is led by the voucher zealot and former talk-show host Dan Patrick; the House has responsible leadership that actually wants to help the public schools that enroll some five million children, who are the future of Texas. Every time the Senate endorses vouchers, the House blocks them. The House has proposed a budget increase to help public schools, but the Senate holds the budget proposal hostage to vouchers. Meanwhile, the public schools are hurting.
The Fort Bend Independent School District addressed the state’s leaders and lawmakers and said: Stop starving our public schools! The school board adopted a series of resolutions calling on legislators to improve school funding for public schools.
The resolutions criticize vouchers as a way of taking money away from cash-strapped districts, lambaste a proposal to require districts to provide teacher raises without funding them and urge lawmakers to pass school finance reform in order to increase the amount that districts receive in state funding.
Kristin Tassin, the board’s president, accused state leaders of taking money away from public schools to promote their political agendas.
“Our state leaders are claiming to support Texas teachers and students, but they are being disingenuous,” Tassin said.
In Gov. Greg Abbott’s call for a special session, he proposed giving a $1,000 pay raise to all teachers, offering vouchers for special education students, forming a committee to study school-finance reform and allowing districts to have more flexibility in teacher hiring…
Vouchers have long been a touchy subject in Texas and nationwide. Essentially, vouchers allow parents to take money that the state would have spent educating their child in a public school and use it to offset the cost of tuition at private schools. While proponents of vouchers argue that they’re an innovative way to allow economically disadvantaged and special education students access to better educations, opponents say vouchers drain money from public schools and direct the funds to private schools that are not held to the same testing and accountability standards…
Tassin said many districts, including Fort Bend ISD, have already voted to approve pay raises for the coming school year and argue that mandating unfunded raises will further strain the district’s finances. Pay raises for teachers and employees have traditionally been considered a local matter.
Keep up the pressure from the grassroots. Vote only for legislators who support public schools, not those who want to take money from public schools that are already underfunded.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And vote out the legislators who don’t support public schools! Looking for public officeholders who lose their positions because of ed policy!
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Define what you mean by “support”. Many (not all) politicians and legislators enroll their own children in private/ non-public schools. Should a person (who supports traditional publicly-operated schools) vote for a politician, who is an obvious hypocrite. and will not send his/her own children, to the public schools, which they claim to support?
Would you support a “slumlord” law, to force all politicians who ‘support’ publicly-operated schools, to send their own children to public school.
It seems only fair. A politician who denies choice to his constituents, should also face the same revocation of choice.
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Charles, supporting public schools is an obligation of all, no matter where your own children go, or if you have no children. Anyone may choose to send their children elsewhere, so long as they pay for it.
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Please, Charles, you’re usually a lot more entertaining than this. This is a very stale talking point. Please try to come up with new ones.
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I feel absolutely no obligation at all, to support any publicly-operated school, which is clearly not delivering a quality education to the students enrolled there. Nevertheless, all responsible citizens, should support delivering a quality education to all children, regardless of the means.
And how can you say “anyone” may choose to send their children elsewhere? People on the lower end of the economic ladder, do not have the financial resources to pay for a quality education at a non-public school, and also provide financial resources (through taxes) to a school system which their children do not attend. Only the wealthy can afford to pay twice.
Since you support the concept of “anyone” sending their children to non-public schools, (as do I), by what means would you empower (lower-income) people to exercise this choice?
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Chas, you are taxed to pay for public schools whether you want to or not.
I am taxed to pay for Trump and his grifter family regardless of my repugnance.
No state or district will give a voucher to a low-income family to attend an elite private school. Voucher schools that take a voucher worth $5,000-7,000 are typically inferior to public schools.
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@Dienne: “Support” comes in many different ways. When a politician sends other people’s money (taxes) to a public education system, which he does not feel is adequate to meet his own children’s needs, this is not “support”. It is hypocrisy.
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Chas,
When a politician or any other citizen pays taxes to support public schools, they are doing their duty as citizens. If the politician wants to pay extra to send his child to a private school, that is his right.
If a politician tries to defund public schools while sending his own child to a well-resourced private school, that’s hypocrisy.
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There is something to be said for demanding that politicians have “skin in the game”, whether it be sending their kids to war if they vote for that or sending their kids to public school. If they and their families bore the cost of their choices, I suspect that they would be more likely to make choices that favored the common good rather than just themselves and their campaign contributors.
So politicians should not be able to send their kids to private school: period.
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Agreed, all of us, have to pay taxes to various governments, and then the politicians spend the money on some programs that we like, and some that we do not like. I am sure that you remember the late William Proxmire, senator from Wisconsin, who gave out the “golden fleece” awards.
And you are quite right, that a voucher of $5,000 will not pay tuition at a school which charges $50,000. Mathematics are what they are!
A private school in Colorado, charges a tuition which is half the cost of the per-pupil expenditures for a publicly-operated school in Colorado.
Bottom line: A voucher of $5000 will only pay $5000. Nevertheless, some families can augment this amount with their own funds. And some (not all) private schools, can offer partial scholarships.
You must agree also, that an ESA in Arizona, is only equivalent to 90% of the current per-pupil expenditures in the publicly-operated school. An ESA in Arizona, will not even pay for the costs of a publicly-operated school. Nevertheless, the program is expanding in Arizona. I think it is a good compromise. The parents/children in Arizona get a measure of choice, and continue to support publicly-operated schools, with the 10% rebate.
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Very few families in AZ take the ESA. It leads to an inferior school.
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@ SDP: You are starting to see the light. If politicians had their children enrolled in publicly-operated schools, it would help to “open up their nostrils”. (An old military expression)
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I see the light, but I don’t think it is the same one you are seeing.
I believe that politicians should actually have to represent their constituents (imagine that)
Since most people can not afford to send their kids to private schools, politicians should have to represent those folks (that’s how Democracy works: majority rules)
The policies/votes of politicians should therefore ensure that the public schools have enough resources, NOT to ensure that private or fake public (charter) schools get scarce public dollars and actually take away money from the public schools.
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The number of AZ families which are opting-out of publicly-operated schools is very small. Out of over 1.1 million school children, only a few thousand have participated, so far. This is good. It shows that the wide majority of families in AZ are satisfied with the education that the publicly-operated schools are delivering, and isn’t that what everyone wants?
Nevertheless, the legislature is opening up the ESA program a bit, with a cap of about 30,000 total participants. I am anxious to see, how many families will participate in this expansion.
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@SDP: Ideally, all politicians should represent the people of their various constituencies. But, with less than 50% of public bothering to vote, all the politicians have to do, is represent 25% of the voters, plus one. This will ensure election and re-election.
Q The policies/votes of politicians should therefore ensure that the public schools have enough resources, NOT to ensure that private or fake public (charter) schools get scarce public dollars and actually take away money from the public schools. END Q
Government must ensure that all children receive a quality education. This is basic. Exactly HOW that education is delivered, varies. If some public spending goes to families, who choose to opt-out, and choose alternate schools for their children, that is not terrible.
Especially with special-needs and gifted/talented children. Not all public schools have the resources/staff to deal with children on the opposite sides of the bell curve. Giving parents of these special children, the resources and financing to obtain the special education that they need, does not have to “rob” public schools. Keep in mind, that when a public school student opt-out, the school loses money, true, but it also loses the student. The per-pupil spending on the remaining children need not diminish, and in Arizona (and other places) it actually increases.
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Chas,
Very few private or religious schools have the staff to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Have you ever seen a teenager in a diaper? Are you remotely aware of the extreme situations that public schools deal with daily? If you were better informed, Charles, you wouldn’t say so many silly things.
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If it were up to me, I would not allow a single dime of public money to go to a charter or other school that is not subject to exactly the same requirements as a public school, including complete public oversight and control. That’s what it means to be a public school.
From what I have seen, many of the charters are run by unqualified people and in some cases fraudsters.
Those who wish to donate their own money to charters are welcome to do so.
Just don’t FORCE me to do so by taking my tax dollars to pay for them.
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Charles, one would hope to elect legislators who see the big picture– the common good– the voters’ good– regardless of where they send their children to school. I for one am tired of this mantra that public-ed-policy actors– be they Trump or Gates or your local state rep– cannot see beyond the end of their nose, & enact ed-policy purely on the basis of their own personal experience. If true, such folks have absolutely no business in the public sphere: re: publically-elected officials should be voted out in the next election– re:unelected big$ underwriters of policy– i say legislate away Cit-United decision & impose strict campaign-reform.
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Q Very few private or religious schools have the staff to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Have you ever seen a teenager in a diaper? Are you remotely aware of the extreme situations that public schools deal with daily? If you were better informed, Charles, you wouldn’t say so many silly things.END Q
You are correct, that not all non-public schools have the staff or facilities to properly serve disabled/special needs children. For example: In Virginia, there are 937 non-public schools, serving 136,328 students . The are 52 non-public schools, for special-needs children.
When I was in college, I worked for a linen-supply company. I delivered linens to various hospitals, and skilled-care facilities. I have seen teenagers, who were incontinent, and had to wear diapers. So what?
I am well-aware of the bizarre situations which occur in publicly-operated schools. I have installed electronics in Washington DC public schools. I have been accepted as a substitute teacher, at Fairfax county public schools. When I was in high school, there was a near-riot, and the police had to evacuate the school (this was in 1971). I keep up with the news, here in the nation’s capital.
What I have asserted, and I continue to assert, is that when parents are given more direct control over their children’s education, and are able to select the appropriate educational experience for them, that this will be beneficial to the students, and to society at large.
When parents are equipped with the financial resources, to select from a wider variety of educational providers, then more specialized education, counseling, and opportunities will open up for the children.
Here is one example:
http://oakvalleycenter.com
And a similar situation will open up for gifted/talented children. When parents can withdraw their children from public schools, they will be able to select from a wider variety of educational providers, which are more able to meet the needs of the gifted/talented.
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Other districts in the state should join Fort Bend to challenge the continuous cutting of public school budgets to enhance their political agenda of privatization. State representatives need to know that the people understand what they are doing, and they oppose it. The more districts that complain, the less likely they will continue to starve public schools.
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Step one. Define public schools clearly so that corporate schools managed by CEOs.
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I have long been a proponent of apprenticeships/internships/cooperative learning. I benefited from an internship, I served, at a telecommunications journal, when I was in college.
Germany has long used apprenticeships, especially as an adjunct to their vo-tech training. Here is a fascinating article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/jpmc-2017/jobs-for-americans/1296/
Finland has some terrific ideas, which can and should be imported to our educational systems. We can look to the Germans, as well.
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