Texas State Legislature and School Choice
We will continue to follow the battle over education policy in the Texas Legislature. Governor Abbott claimed he has the votes to pass the school choice voucher plan, which was rejected two years ago, in this new legislative session. FOX 7 Austin’s John Klinjak looks at both sides of this continuing issue.
Austin, Texas – Gov. Greg Abbott said he has the votes to pass a school choice plan in this new Legislature after it was defeated two years ago.
Details of the bill have not yet been released, but the plan is expected to be controversial in the Texas Legislature in the coming weeks.
Related articles:
What is a school voucher?
School districts talk about Congressional funding.
Many school districts are hoping that lawmakers will take action to increase school funding. Last week, 7 On Your Side covered the impact of that situation in Austin ISD. Now, John Klinjak highlights two more districts dealing with state funding shortfalls.
Back story:
Education savings accounts, often called vouchers, allow families who drop out of public school to use their tax dollars to pay for private school instead.
“We don’t know the details yet, so it’s probably around $10,000 per child,” said Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Association of Private Schools.
Some advocates, like Colangelo, want the money to be capped with income limits to help students who need it most.
“This is one of the bill’s four priorities to ensure that families who currently cannot afford private school have access to this program,” Colangelo said.
What do the critics say?
What they are saying:
Critics like Dax Gonzalez of the Texas School Boards Association fear that won’t happen.
“What we’ve seen in other states is that typically the kids who need it the most are not receiving the same voucher services as other students, and the ones who are using those vouchers are , most of the families already attend private schools,” Gonzalez said.
Democrats and some local Republicans have also expressed concern that vouchers would divert funds from public schools. The bill comes at a time when many school districts are running deep budget deficits. The main reason for this is that Congress failed to pass public school funding related to school choice in the last Congress.
“Anytime you create a third source of funding for educational purposes,” Gonzalez said. “This is money that should be used to support Texas public school students. I believe that any diversion of public education funds will ultimately lead to worse outcomes for public school students. Masu.”
But supporters say that’s not the case elsewhere.
“Thirty-two other states in the country have private school choice programs, and they have shown across the board that they do not negatively impact public schools,” Colangelo said.
Let’s dig deeper:
Then there is the issue of transparency and accountability for private schools that receive state funding.
“We hope that this bill will include an accountability measure that would require private school accreditation, which would be a very robust measure to ensure that schools meet and exceed public school standards. “It’s a robust process,” Colangelo said.
“Well, what we saw last session was a bill that actually had very little accountability or transparency for taxpayer dollars. So when we were looking at the voucher program, the dollar There was a plan that didn’t really take into account what was going to happen, how the money was being spent and how taxpayers could see how that money was being spent,” Gonzalez said. Ta.
What’s next:
Many on Capitol Hill expect vouchers and public school funding to be introduced as separate bills this time, unlike in the last Congress.
Source: Information from an interview conducted by John Klinkak of FOX 7 Austin
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