Sign up for The Brief, the Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that provides readers with the most important Texas news.
With a wave of Texas Republicans dominating the ballot box on Election Day, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday pushed the Texas House of Representatives to pass his school voucher program, his top legislative priority since last year. He expressed confidence that he had received enough votes.
The governor shared his optimism during a visit to Kingdom Life Academy, a small Christian private school in Tyler, and declared there are now 79 “die-hard school choice supporters” in the House of Representatives. However, it declared that this was slightly more than the simple majority of 150 MPs needed. Approve the bill.
During the same visit, Abbott also said he was committed to fully funding Texas public schools, giving teachers raises and increasing career training opportunities for students, but he also said he was committed to fully funding Texas public schools, giving teachers raises and increasing career training opportunities for students, although he did so in the Texas Legislature last year. Mr. Abbott rejected all of these when the issue of vouchers stalled.
Last year, members of the House of Representatives voted by a majority to remove a provision creating education savings accounts from a massive education funding bill. Education savings accounts are voucher-like programs that allow parents to pay for their children’s private school and other educational expenses through taxes. Twenty-one Republicans, most of them representing local school districts, joined all House Democrats in raising concerns that such a proposal would cut funding that public schools rely on. He opposed this bill.
Mr. Abbott has vowed to use the March primary cycle to campaign against local Republicans who helped block his plan. He did this with the support of people like Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, who seeks to use their money and influence to support school aid advocates across the country.
Despite a record $32 billion budget surplus, Mr. Abbott’s reluctance in the last Congress to fully fund public education led many public school districts to enter this school year with multimillion-dollar budget deficits. , while also grappling with rising costs of living and the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds. Legislative mandates to improve school safety are inadequately funded.
But after at least 11 of the 15 pro-voucher candidates he endorsed earlier this year won Tuesday night’s general election, Mr. He said that the school voucher bill will be passed as desired in next year’s Congress. .
“They make it sound as if it’s impossible to have both school choice and solid public schools,” Abbott said. “That’s just not true. The reality is that you can have the best public schools in America and have school choice at the same time. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, and pitting one against the other is Wrong.”
The most important Texas news is
I sent it on a weekday morning.
Kingdom Life Academy, the venue Mr. Abbott chose to tout Wednesday’s election night successes, offered “hands-on, Christ-centered learning” to a student body made up primarily of black and Hispanic children. It is a private school with financial difficulties that offers “.
Similar to what school voucher proponents have done across the country, Abbott and Kingdom Life Academy founder and director Joel Enge are committed to creating more opportunities for the state’s most vulnerable and underprivileged students. promoted school voucher legislation as a way to provide
“I was a public school teacher in Tyler for more than 20 years. … I watched students drop out of school because they felt they didn’t fit into traditional education,” said Black Enge said. “We are grateful for the opportunity to continue the fight and see school choice open doors for more students and families in need of alternative education.”
But school voucher programs across the country don’t always accomplish what their proponents say they do. The country’s first voucher program was launched in the late 20th century to help vulnerable students, but many of the children now benefiting from the expanded program were already enrolled in private school classes. He comes from a wealthy family that pays a lot of money. On the other hand, families living in poorer areas often do not use vouchers.
When it comes to academic performance, studies in multiple states have shown that vouchers have not consistently led to improved standardized test scores for low-income students, a metric that Republican officials say is important for public education. It’s something I often rely on when making decisions. In some cases, vouchers can cause your score to drop quickly. Voucher proponents often point out that the benefits of such programs are best measured by increased competition among schools and parent satisfaction.
