School Vouchers - The Monster That Won't Die

We already know that the Texas legislature is going to significantly damage Texas schools in this legislative session. This is a foregone conclusion. In spite of the fact that Texas already is near the bottom of all states in "per student" funding for its schools, the legislature is proposing that billions of dollars be cut from education funding. We don't know just how much yet, since the House and Senate have come up with different figures -- the Senate wants about $5 billion in cuts while the House wants about $9 billion (and it may take a special session this summer to hammer out the difference since this legislative session end in about two weeks).

Those proposals are devastating to Texas schools. The Senate plan could result in the lay-off of up to 50,000 teachers (and the House plan could double that number). This would have to result in bigger class sizes -- a move that would almost certainly exacerbate the state's huge drop-out rate (already about 30%). Anyone who thinks Texas schools could absorb these huge cuts without the quality of education being affected is living in a dream world.

But now the far-right anti-public education teabaggers in the legislature are proposing an amendment to the education funding bills that will take even more money out of public education. They want the state of Texas to issue vouchers that would pay for part of the expensive tuition at private religious schools (schools that currently get no state education funds).

Where would the money come from to issue these private religious school vouchers? It would come from the already depleted funds going to public schools! In other words, the public schools would have to pay for students to attend private religious schools (even though their own funding is being radically cut).

This is nothing less than a war on public education from those on the far right. And it must be stopped. These people don't believe every child has a right to a free public education. Like their mean-spirited stance on health care, they believe education is only for those who can afford to pay for it.

They will tell you the vouchers, now called "taxpayer savings grants", will allow poor and working class kids to get a private education. That is a lie! These vouchers will only pay a part of the cost of a private religious school education, meaning only those who already can afford this will get these vouchers -- while poor and working class students will be stuck in the financially-depleted public schools. This is nothing more than a tax rebate for the upper middle class and the rich.

The Texas legislature defeated voucher proposals in 2007 and 2009, but this monster refuses to die. And with more far-right legislators serving than ever before, vouchers have their best chance ever to be approved. The Texas Freedom Network has listed 8 reasons why vouchers would be a bad idea. I present them here for my Texas readers (who hopefully will pressure their representatives to once again kill this monster off):

1. Even a pilot voucher program would siphon hundreds of millions of dollars in public tax dollars out of neighborhood public schools to fund private and religious schools. Public schools are already struggling to pay for equipment and other resources they need to teach our children.

2. Vouchers don’t create ’choice’ for parents and kids; they create ’choice’ for private schools at taxpayers’ expense. The private voucher experiment in progress in Edgewood ISD confirms that private schools will use vouchers to recruit the most talented and academically motivated kids out of public schools at taxpayers’ expense, leaving behind the children who can’t get into private school.

3. Despite the loss of some students to vouchers, schools will not see a reduction in their bond debt, personnel and program costs. School boards would be left holding the bag-forced to make up their budget shortfall by raising the property taxes of local businesses and citizens.

4. The pro-voucher lobby’s promises are misleading. Elite private schools are very selective and a voucher would not cover tuition. Many private schools would refuse vouchers if state accountability tests or standards were required.

5. Due to the huge sums of tax money that would be newly available under a voucher scheme, fly-by-night schools would open, looking only to make a profit. The state would be powerless to prevent these unaccredited and unqualified schools from taking taxpayer funds.

6. Spending public tax dollars for religious schools violates the state and federal constitutional separation of church and state. Hundreds of clergy from across the state have decried the use of vouchers as an affront to our constitutionally guaranteed protections.

7. There is no credible evidence that vouchers improve the educational achievement of students who use them, while there is abundant proof that smaller classes, early reading intervention, a longer school year, and other reforms do work. Voucher schemes represent a billion dollar long-shot gamble with our children’s lives and our state’s future.

8. Vouchers would allow us to shirk our responsibility to provide a first class education for EVERY CHILD in Texas.