Lone Star State Gives in to Voucher Scheme
Abbott claims victory even as his plan sets up funding crisis, death of public schools
The privatizers won in Texas.
Public education, resisting a withering assault year after year, is finally falling to the persistent push of limitless loads of lobbying dollars.
The Texas Tribune reports:
The Texas House gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would create a $1 billion private school voucher program, crossing a historic milestone and bringing Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority closer than ever to reaching his desk.
The lower chamber signed off on its voucher proposal, Senate Bill 2, on an 86-61 vote. Every present Democrat voted against the bill. They were joined by two Republicans — far short of the bipartisan coalitions that in previous legislative sessions consistently blocked proposals to let Texans use taxpayer money to pay for their children’s private schooling.
Texas joins Tennessee in giving away state funds to school privatizers in legislative sessions this year.
If the experience in those two states is anything like vouchers in all the other states where they’ve been tried, Tennessee and Texas can expect budget crises, local tax increases, and declining student achievement.
On all proficiency tests, students getting a voucher for one year or less overall are about 75% proficient. Three years later, they’re 54% proficient.
That’s a drop of nearly 1/3!
Ouch. Not great. Students are LOSING ground academically after taking vouchers.
Put another way, the voucher students’ first-year scores would rank in the top 1/4 of all Ohio Public School Districts; their third-year scores would rank in the bottom 1/5 of all Ohio Public School Districts.
In Arizona, for instance, the state faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was the result of new voucher spending.
An analysis of the Sunshine State's private school voucher program reveals the total cost to taxpayers is $3.9 billion annually.
Florida used to run a huge budget surplus, but now it's running a deficit. Cottle and others are trying to raise an alarm about math instruction and the need to improve math instruction, particularly by recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers. But the "still-growing budget for school choice vouchers is surely competing for money with ideas for initiatives to improve student learning, and the voucher budget is winning."
Vouchers are expensive. They bust budgets. They cause local school districts to cut programs or raise taxes or both. And, they don’t improve student achievement. In fact, in many cases, students who accept vouchers do worse than their public school peers.
That’s what Texas has now signed up for. It is what Gov. Greg Abbott is celebrating. And it is just plain sad.
Thank you to the more than 2600 subscribers to The Education Report. If you’re not a subscriber, I’d love to have you. If you feel so inclined, consider becoming a paid subscriber - your investment allows me to devote time and energy to finding and reporting news essential to defending public education. I’d also love it if you’d like and share these posts - now more than ever, it is critical to spread the word about what’s happening.
A complete disaster, this is.
It's so sad. Many private schools are 2nd and 3rd tier schools. Here in Nashville, we have some excellent private schools: Oak Hill, Harpeth Hall, Overbrook, Father Ryan, Currey-Ingram, Brentwood Academy, Montgomery Bell, FRA, BGA, Ensworth, Harding Academy...I could go on. I certainly didn't list every private school that delivers an excellent education. However, we all know that there are plenty of second-rate schools. Just because a child goes to a private school doesn't mean it is better than a public school. Many are worse. Many are just money-making enterprises. I think the real point of vouchers is to direct money to folks who just want to turn a profit. Should any tax dollars go to religious schools? Doesn't that violate the US Constitution? But what does trump care about the Constitution?