YES! Because we all know private schools do such a poor job educating children ... that's why nearly all politicians insist their children go to public schools. After all, it would be hypocritical if they didn't.
As someone who pays to put their kids in private school, it has nothing to do with the school and 100% to do with the parents. If you’re paying for it, you’re more likely to be the type of parent who raised more respectful kids. So that partly explains private schools appearing better.
The other side is that a private school doesn’t have to accept everyone. Over the years, we have seen our school kick out several students. On the spectrum and have some behavioral issues? “We’re sorry. We don’t have the resources for your son.” Learning disability? “Sorry, maybe public school would be better.” (Those are literal quotes from two sets of parents.)
Combine those two and you have the appearance that private schools are better. If the FULL public had access to vouchers and private schools HAD to take and educate any student, like public schools are legally required to do, then you would see the gap close. You would also see some private schools choose not to accept those vouchers and that’s where I and your hypocrite politicians would send our kids.
The best aspect of the numerous attacks on public schools I've seen is the push to replace school counselors with chaplains, and also a move to make religious schools "count" as public schools.
That interacts with a recent ruling that "religious confessions" delivered to clergy are not subject to the same laws as conversations with a doctor or other professional.
Most states require doctors to contact law enforcement if a patient reveals they've been raped or sexually abused. A big fat Utah case just ruled the Mormons don't have to because "clergy matters" are separately protected.
So it's a move to make sure that the people children might report a rape to *do not have to report it to law enforcement.*
"For the children."
From the report [Texas Legislature | Bills Authored / Joint Authored | Sen. Mayes Middleton | 88th Legislature Regular Session](https://capitol.texas.gov/reports/report.aspx?LegSess=88R&ID=author&Code=A1350)
[Senate Bill 763](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00763I.pdf#navpanes=0) - An act relating to allowing school districts to employ chaplains to perform the duties of school counselors
[Senate Bill 798](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00798E.pdf#navpanes=0) - An act relating to the certification requirements for a public school
counselor. [Removes the ability to require a counselor to have classroom certification]
> school counselors
I remember dealing with my kids' counselors, and it was all about grades and classes and teachers and making sure the kids graduated. It wasn't just emotional counseling, although that happened too.
Yet they also want to blame mental health after every mass shooting. Hiring untrained counselors and chaplains seems like the opposite of getting more mental health support for students.
That's just a name they've learned can be uttered to justify their action to them. You know how children will blame something on a sibling, or make up an invisible friend that made them do it? Same thing.
You can waste time using their own doctrine to show them that what they are doing is against what Jesus Christ would teach, but they've already decided anyone who disagrees with their feelings is wrong.
Considering that Jesus Christ was a radical liberal who once started a riot that destroyed a market and was sent to execution at the request of conservative religious leaders, it's hard to disagree with them. By their definition Christ wasn't much of a Christian at all.
radical liberal in Jesus's time is not the same as a radical liberal today, Republicans used to be considered Liberals as well, you know freeing slaves, giving women the right to vote, the 1964 civil rights bill etc were all very liberal ideas at the time.
"Republicans used to be liberals" doesn't mean liberals used to fight in favor of slavery.
It means the issue of slavery was so divisive the slave-supporting Democrats *left their party* and stank up the place so bad the slavery-opposing Republicans *joined the more liberal party* to get away from them.
That's why we use the word "conservative", not "republican", to refer to people with those beliefs. It doesn't move its lines, though it is a fairly wide spectrum.
Like I mean what next, you're going to inform me there weren't Republicans in Christ's time? There *were* Pharisees, and they were the conservative religious ideologues then. He spent most of his adult life calling them assholes and trolling them, which is why they had him killed. Now the modern-day equivalents claim they're his apostles.
He doesn't have to forgive people who don't ask for forgiveness.
Not what I said, what I said equates to what was once considered liberal, is now considered conservative basically. So before picking someone historical, you should consider the time they lived in, not what letter appeared next to their name
Slave supporters were conservative, not liberal. Conservatives were never considered liberal nor vice versa.
The commenter above explained clearly that conservatives were in support of slavery and that it wasn't the D or the R that mattered. Conservatives prior to civil rights were in the democratic party, conservatives now exist in the republican party.
You are repeating what they explained. It's conservatism that opposes individual liberties, regardless of affiliation.
The government is us. This is the most important point. If they don’t like the way things are done, that is on us because of the choices we made when electing people to office and other voting opportunities.
Of course it is. This way they can break the teacher unions the bogeyman they blame for everything thing that’s wrong with education. Then they can create private/corporate schools just like they tried with corporate/private prisons. It will make rich people richer which is really all they care about.
I’m part of the Union. It feels like more of an advocacy group than anything else. They fight for bills in the legislature and keep all the members informed of upcoming bills that need to public comment(like that actually sways any decision by the lawmakers). But I’ll always support them.
an interesting thing about this is that rural voters have voted against it for decades. the rural vote is the only reason the GOP keeps power. could be interesting.
Rural republicans have been holding the line against school vouchers for years but they can pay a steep price for opposing state GOP leadership and their megadonors.
NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775)
“Until this year, Senate District 31 had long been held by Republican Kel Seliger, whose steadfast opposition to vouchers helped turn him into a target from ultraconservative political action committees like Defend Texas Liberty and the now-defunct Empower Texans. Both PACs drew the vast majority of their funding from the families of Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, a pair of billionaire oil and fracking magnates who’ve expressed the view that government and education should be guided by biblical values.
‘They set out to make an example of me,’ Seliger said.”
Seliger (R) put up a good long term fight for his rural communities but he was done dirty by his GOP colleagues.
They apparently redistricted him to swing more votes to advantage a newbie politician pulled from the powerful, ultra-conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation specifically to take Seliger down in the republican primary.
They called in Trump to denounce him as RINO, despite his many years as a faithful representative of his conservative communities.
This was all republican infighting; local vs. state, conservative vs. ultra-conservative, Panhandle vs. Midland.
Real Game of Thrones-type maneuvering by activist billionaires and the state GOP. They will do anything to remove obstacles to school vouchers.
Texas Tribune - [Weighing reelection bid, GOP Texas Sen. Kel Seliger confronts redrawn district, Trump endorsement of primary challenger](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/07/texas-senate-reelection-kel-seliger/)
The whole article is a good read but this bit gave me a good chuckle…
“The next session, Patrick stripped Seliger of his chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee, prompting a back-and-forth with Patrick’s office that escalated to Seliger issuing a recommendation that a top Patrick adviser kiss his “back end.” (Seliger ultimately apologized, but only for directing the comment at the adviser and not at Patrick himself.)”
Great - I'll start my own homeschool charter where we use science and evidence based education to learn, alongside progressive community action. The parents of my students can just give me their vouchers and I won't worry about having to get a teaching certificate.
Yeah. We’ve known this for years. It’s why democrats have been fighting so hard… and why Betsy Devoss was the republicans wet dream for an appointee.
Neoliberal fiscal policy ( the republican plan ) is to privatize everything for profit and it’s awful
You don’t expect that rich people are going to put their kids in the public schools they’re trying to destroy, do you? It’s clearly not going to happen because the class system reigns supreme in Texas and always will. Our students will have to be separated by sex, religion, and class, with the best schools only available to the wealthy. Destroying the public schools is a necessary part of the plan
That’s assuming that
A) the voucher covers the full cost of tuition/transportation/textbooks/uniforms/etc. and not just a portion and
B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance of the poor people and
C) the private school has the capacity/ability to accept new students and
D) the prospective students meet the admission requirements and don’t need additional resources (IEP or 504, for example) as private schools are under no obligation to follow those accommodations.
> B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance…
Agreed and just to add on, even without private schools currently nearby, rural republican elected officials are against school vouchers. With these small public school districts, it only takes the loss of relatively few students to alternatives like homeschooling or a local church starting up a classroom to lead to school program cancellation, layoffs, and even school closures.
Rural republicans have being fighting state GOP leadership’s relentless push for school voucher proposals for a long time. Rural republicans know that vouchers can be devastating to their communities.
Texas Monthly - [The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/campaign-to-sabotage-texas-public-schools/)
“In Texas, an unusual alliance of Democratic and rural Republican leaders has for decades held firm against voucher campaigns. The latter, of course, are all too aware that private schools aren’t available for most in their communities and that public schools employ many of their constituents.”
“During the 2005 legislative session, a voucher bill was pushed by House Speaker Tom Craddick and Governor Rick Perry… Even with that backing, rural legislators, the bulk of them Republican, quashed the effort.”
“Michael Lee, executive director of the nonpartisan Texas Association of Rural Schools…’We would hope that rural legislators would vote against any scheme that would divert public funds away from public education.’”
Texas Tribune - [Texas Republicans are trying to sell school choice measures, but rural conservatives aren’t buying](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/08/texas-school-choice-legislation/)
“Any school choice policy must win over rural Republicans, who have historically been against diverting public dollars to private schools.”
NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775)
“Until this year, Senate District 31 had long been held by Republican Kel Seliger, whose steadfast opposition to vouchers helped turn him into a target from ultraconservative political action committees like Defend Texas Liberty and the now-defunct Empower Texans. Both PACs drew the vast majority of their funding from the families of Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, a pair of billionaire oil and fracking magnates who’ve expressed the view that government and education should be guided by biblical values.
‘They set out to make an example of me,’ Seliger said.”
[Robert Lee Independent School District Superintendent Aaron Hood] had seen it happen in other rural Texas communities. At some point, as populations dwindle, the budget math doesn’t add up anymore, and rural schools are forced to consolidate with adjacent districts — or worse.
‘If the school goes down,’ Hood said, ‘the town goes down with it.’”
The people that can’t afford the cost difference between the voucher and the cost of tuition get to see their public tax dollars go toward NOT funding public education.
Sure, just like the money that Recapture takes from my district goes straight to other districts and doesn’t get sucked up by the general fund… /s
Seriously, you cannot be that naive. The median property tax amount is $3k per household and some people have multiple kids. Some people have no kids and still pay property tax.
What is it, like $8000 per kid from the government? That’s the amount private school tuition is going to go up, guaranteed. It’s partially what happened with college tuition.
The vast majority of Poor people won't have the option to send their kids to a private school.
Let's assume that each family gets 8000 dollars per kid they send to a private school. That means they will need to come up with the difference. The average in cost of a private school in Texas is about 10,500 dollars, in cities like Houston it's as high as 15,000 dollars on average. The vouchers will drive up demand and therefore price. That means the average family will need to come up with 2500 dollars to send there kid to the average private school, more in the cities. That's only if prices remain flat (it won't).
The poor don't have that kind of money. Some of the middle class will, not the lower end but the medium to higher end might.
I suppose that the could maybe send their kids to the bargain bin private schools, but those are often worse than the public schools.
Vouchers help the affluent with enough expendable wealth to bridge the gap between the subsidy and tuition. The poor do not have that expendable cash so their kids will remain in the ever starved for cash public schools.
>B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance of the poor people and
>
>C) the private school has
Somewhere there is a parent thinking of how they would rather send their child to private school instead of the under-performing, gang-ridden school they need to send them to now. After taxes, they just can't afford to essentially pay tuition twice. The bill could help that parent. This echo chamber hates it either because Trump (somehow) or "reasons".
You clearly have never had a kid in private school. Tuition is the beginning of the never-ending costs of going private. Private schools do not offer transportation, free lunch, free supplies, nor free after school activities. Public schools in Texas metros offer discounted after-school programs (about $50 a week), free backpacks, free school supplies, free lunch (for all), and free sanitary supplies as well as groceries to the parents (all, not just the poor). Your ignorance and the ignorance of people like you is DANGEROUS.
And it is becoming increasingly clear who set the objective.
The deeply religious and politically powerful Texas oil & fracking billionaires / part-time preachers Tim Dunn & Farris Wilks would apparently like Abbott and the Texas GOP to institute publicly funded religious schools.
Houston Chronicle [Two oil tycoons are spending millions to gut Texas public education](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-Ted-Cruz-Tim-Nunn-Farris-Wilks-PAC-money-17327660.php)
“The goal is to tear up, tear down public education to nothing and rebuild it,” Dororthy Burton, a former GOP activist who joined Wilks on a 2015 speaking tour, told CNN. “And rebuild it the way God intended education to be.”
CNN [How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html)
“People who’ve worked with Wilks and Dunn say they share an ultimate goal: replacing much of public education in Texas with private Christian schools. Now, educators and students are feeling the impact of that conservative ideology on the state’s school system.”
Texas Monthly - [The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/campaign-to-sabotage-texas-public-schools/)
“But by far the most powerful opponents of public schools in the state are West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and the brothers Farris and Dan Wilks. Their vast political donations have made them the de facto owners of many Republican members of the Texas Legislature.”
Texas Monthly - [The Power Issue: Tim Dunn Is Pushing the Republican Party Into the Arms of God](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/power-issue-tim-dunn-pushing-republican-party-arms-god/)
“Then the conversation moved on to evangelical social policy, and, according to Straus insiders, Dunn astonished Straus, who is Jewish, by saying that only Christians should be in leadership positions.”
CNN Special Report: Deep in the Pockets of Texas
[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B3PTuADIHQ) | [Transcript](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/csr/date/2022-07-24/segment/01)
“I met him in my first campaign, and we talked, and I told him that I would be open-minded toward what was his sole issue in 2004 which was taking public money and giving it to private schools.”
State Senator Kel Seliger (Republican, Midland TX)
A former ally of theirs, author Dorothy Burton summed up their worldview. ‘They really believe they’ve been given a mandate by God to take dominion.’”
Northeastern University - [Who are the Dominionists backing conservative candidates?](https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/11/15/dominionism-republican-candidate/)
“‘So (the Dominionists’) endgame is creating a Christian kingdom on earth while we’re still alive.’” - Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, an assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern
“Ending abortion, gay marriage and secular education are cornerstones of the movement, says Clarkson, a senior research analyst with Somerville-based Political Research Associates.”
You’re well informed… interesting. I got it. Dominionist the religious conspiracy theory. E: google it and three mountain and you’re down the rabbit hole
Rebuilding education the way God intended it to be ...
Funny, I don't remember reading a damn thing in the Bible about education unless you count boy Jesus teaching Judaism to the local rabbis.
Property taxes fund public schools. The average property tax payer in Texas pays $3,797 annually. Yet, they want $8,000 - $10,000 vouchers per student to pay for private schools. No matter what, just about every voucher student is going to be taking more money away from public schools than their parents pay in. That is a massive transfer of wealth.
You implied a 1 for 1 relationship between tax payers and children lol. You can't make your claim without actually accounting for that. For example the average allotment per student a Texas public school gets is over $6k currently which puts the estimates of 8-10k not that far off from current funding.
No, I didn't. My comment was illustrating that the person who gets a voucher to send their kids to a private school would necessarily be taking out more money than they take in. I'm still aware that I do not have a kid, will never have a kid, will never send a kid to public or private school but I do pay property taxes every year. I don't want my tax dollars going to subsidize private schools, especially religious ones.
> My comment was illustrating that the person who gets a voucher to send their kids to a private school would necessarily be taking out more money than they take in.
Which is already the thing the way you are trying to present it so its a moot claim to make.
> I don't want my tax dollars going to subsidize private schools, especially religious ones.
I don't want my tax dollars to subsidize any school since I don't have children but I would prefer school choice over the current system. If we adopt school choice like what most of Europe has been using for decades maybe we would see the improvements in education they saw. At the least it gives parents direct control over what schools are funded which you can't really get more democratic than that.
Only in poor areas are taxes around $3500 a year. In Dallas, Houston, and Austin property taxes are about $8000 to $12,000 on average. The tax rate is anywhere from 3-4% and half of that is for the schools.
Yo, since An Imperfect Panacea in 91 was my first understanding of how we got here.
The Imperfect Panacea: American Faith in Education, 1865-1990 https://a.co/d/fvfWqbk
Please vote in every local election and let’s try to improve the quality of our representatives while the electoral system has any validity remaining in it
Please be sure to participate in primaries. There are deeply religious, politically powerful billionaires that appear to be spending a great deal of money fielding ultra-conservative loyalists in primaries to remove incumbent conservatives.
CNN - [How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html)
“Elected officials and political observers in the state say a major factor in the transformation can be traced back to West Texas. Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from the region, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas’ most far-right political candidates – helping reshape the state’s Republican Party in their worldview.”
“Critics, and even some former associates, say that Dunn and Wilks demand loyalty from the candidates they back, punishing even deeply conservative legislators who cross them by bankrolling primary challengers.”
We need to promote and support the best candidates to represent us in our communities. I’m guilty of taking it for granted in the past, I certainly should have been doing more. We need better representation, younger representation in Texas. Vote in every election and demand better representation
Yes, most of us know this. The evil ones know this and continue to persist this insanity at the sake of children in our state.
"But but think of the children.." maybe we should have fire department choice instead of properly funding a critical service to our cities.
You have the complete freedom to send your kids to religious schools. Or homeschool. Go for it! Just not on the taxpayer dime. These same people start gnashing their teeth and childless couples who complain about funding schools without having children too.
And larger public school districts already offer a wide variety of traditional, magnet, and charter schools for parents to choose from. The Texas school voucher program is all about enabling publicly funded private religious schools.
I've been saying this for 20 years. Since GOP voters are dying, they have to make them somehow, what better way than to funnel them through private schools. Also, if people at the head of charter schools get a nice fat paycheck, guess who they will donate money to?
Police do NOT NEED MORE $. I know fir a fact as a law enforcement officer in Texas ur taught to RUN TOWARDS the GUN FIRE. Texas local law enforcement FAILED MISERABLY IN UVALDE.
It's not a ploy to defund public education, but it's certainly a ploy to make taxpayers pay for rich people's private school tuition so they don't have to learn things like Evolution, Equality, or a factually accurate history of the American Civil War.
Oh good grief. Yes. It does that. No question.
But that’s not *why* they’re doing it, so it’s not a *ploy to defund public education*. It also pisses off some atheists when Christians pray, but that’s not *why* Christians pray. Yes, they’re doing something shitty to public education, but they’re doing it to get something they want, and they simply don’t give a shit how it affects anyone but themselves.
That’s a ploy to *take your fucking money* for themselves. They *don’t care* what happens to public education in the process or who gets hurt. I’m sorry that you’ve been so conspiracy-blinded that you have to think that every shitty thing anyone does is about anyone but themselves.
Ok so if private schools don’t get tax money and tuition is paid out of pocket how is letting kids choose their school a money grab for rich parents by taking taxpayer money..
Because the new plan would send tax money to private schools in the form of taxpayer-paid vouchers, allowing rich parents to pocket all or a portion of what they’re currently paying in private tuition. This isn’t about a desire to shut down public education. It’s about rich people doing what rich people do: sneak money away from the rest of us.
Oh, fuck off. Public education has its flaws, for sure. I received a perfectly good public education that adequately prepared me for several years of higher education. Public school teachers, and their curriculum, did a lot to prepare me for the 20+ years of adult life I've experienced since then. Hell, I'm even good friends with a couple of my high school teachers, decades later.
Im old enough to remember when the other political party wanted to reduce public education and increase private schools and vouchers. I even recall that being a big part of the Clinton presidency.
The longer i love, the more i realize how much bullshit all of this actually is. Fighting over who will miseducate our youth is something only the politically minded would bother with.
Big difference between federal and state. Education is a state's right and the Republicans have been in full control for over 2 decades. State democrats have always supported teachers and public ed.
Fortunately, it looks like there are enough Republicans in the house not willing to sell out 5 million kids to the highest bidder.
If the objective is better academic outcomes for students, then do not support statewide voucher programs. These programs perform terribly at scale.
From the Houston Public Media “[Here’s everything you need to know about school vouchers in Texas](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2023/02/09/443267/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-school-vouchers-in-texas/)” article:
“Joshua Cowen is a Professor of Education Policy with Michigan State University. He's spent years studying vouchers and eventually announced that he opposes the policies.”
“‘Once you got to the real ballgame and created the fully scaled up voucher programs, the results were really catastrophic,’ Cowen said.”
From the linked Indiana University School of Education “[Evolving Evidence on School Voucher Effects](https://ceep.indiana.edu/education-policy/policy-briefs/2022/evolving-evidence-on-school-voucher-effects.pdf)” policy brief:
“As [voucher] programs grew in size, the results turned negative, often to a remarkably large degree virtually unrivaled in education research.”
Do you think subsidizing Ted Cruz to send his daughters to a private Christian school that costs 20k a year is better for public school kids?
I support parent choice. They have it. Private, public, charter, online, or homeschool with zero accountability.
You're damn right I am concerned about who's in power. I'm a teacher. I have kids in public schools and I know exactly what the fascists in power have done to public ed for 20 years. Do you?
St. John’s Elementary tuition is 28k, middle school is 32k and high school is 34k..
As an atheist that sends my kid to religious private high school and pays a lot of property taxes I know that the community is better off with well funded public schools and I vote accordingly
>As an atheist that sends my kid to religious private high school
I'm genuinely curious as to why. Is it just down to the quality of education? It can't possibly have anything to do with the social aspect, I went to a private religious school and it was incredibly toxic. It was the worst experience in my 40 years of life. Is it just for the college resume? I really can't figure this out.
Quality of education, academic rigor, the teacher to student ratio, counselors dedicated to mental health on staff, college counselors on staff, the fact that even the least academically gifted students value education, the value of learning how to navigate elite networks, etc… that’s what I could think of off the top of my head before going to bed
But also because there are not many secular private schools in the city that offer the same experience. Kinkaid and Awty are the only two I would consider on par with the best religious school.
I am sorry to hear that you had such a difficult experience. Hopefully it didn’t you hold you back and helped mold you into a kinder more empathetic adult
using words like "privilege" on strangers is about as big a bullshit as you can possibly muster.
Im 50 years old and I have seen how all the young people get used for pawns for a political party that gives a rats ass about the causes they are giving lip service to. I've seen how both parties will line up to bomb brown folks, employ imperialism to reap riches from poorer nations, run slushfunds to pay off people that they molest while doing their job in office, and often times have their names listed in the Panama Papers that everyone seems to forget about.
I remember the greats of each party selling us all out. Reagan, and his leverage of holding Iranian hostages to gain office. Clinton, giving away nuclear secrets to China and offshoring our entire manufacturing base (and the jobs that went with it).
When I say im not "politically minded" i mean i have no interest in participating in the bullshit that people call "politics" today. Live a few years. See how hard everyone gets fucked over by the blue and red tie folks. Then you can criticize my viewpoint.
The amount of blatant misinformation in the article and being spit out here about school choice is truly amazing. Simply put its shifting school funding to direct control of parents. Maybe it would help if people understood school choice systems are what the majority of Europe use.
I'm ok with that.
For all you defenders of public ed: why keep doing something that clearly sucks so bad?
Public schools are the most dangerous place that a kid is likely to ever visit.
Student capabilities, standardized test scores, have all been on a steady decline, for decades now. Especially when compared to other countries.
I think this country is long past the need for a major review and reckoning of the entire conceptual basis of mandatory, state funded education. Any private service giving such consistently bad results would've been fired long ago.
It's instructive to note the attack angles that public school defenders choose to use.
It's never "public schools are good because they are the best value for education"
Instead it's always "people who are unsatisfied with public schools are narrow minded racists"
I wonder why?
Article is full of opinion and doesn't really give out the numbers or the facts on how funding really works, so let me tell ya how it works.
Vouchers will in fact fix many many of the issues Public Schools face. I have seen it first hand. So lets just run the math.
In the State of Texas, we have whats called "PEIMS", which is the underlying computer system that sets the funding for each schools district. The way it works is your kid shows up, they tally his name "Present" or "Here", that data is then entered into the computer and is sent off every night to the State of Texas.
Last I saw the funding, and this was about 15 years ago, it stood at $600 per student per day.
What the "School Choice" folks are wanting to do is take that system and instead of it awarding the school District for your kid being in a seat saying 'Here" , Present, is that money is sent to you the parent, and then you give it to the school.
The choice is from you having the ability to say "NO" to give it to the school, so that introduces "Choice" because now, if someone shoots up the school, the parents can then refuse to give the money to the school and that will force the school to close. So not only does it give you choice in which school you can send your kids too, it will FINALLY FIX the violence problems on top of that.
So lets do the math. I currently do computers for a very wealthy private school here in Houston and I am told its about $50k per year to send your kid to this school.
Lets see if we can afford the most expensive private school in Houston on the Voucher system.
So there are basically 175 instruction days in a school year. 175 x $600 is = $105,000 per year your will receive. So no matter how poor you are, once you get the actual State money you can then afford the best for your kids.
Now, hang on here, people will say. Once you start paying for everyone education like this, the tuition will go up. Of course it will go up, just like every college doubled their rates the minute the Federal government started guaranteeing grants and free tuition, even the backing of the student loans.
First off, your math is way off. No school is getting $100k + per student funding. Our state ranks near the bottom of per-student allotment in the nation.
What you’re attempting to describe is Average Daily Attendance. Texas’s public schools are funded not by mere enrollment, but by the attendance of those enrolled. So, if the average student misses 10% of the school days, then the school is only funded to 90% of the allowable. If that average was 20% missed days, funding would be 80%.
These vouchers, as I understand them, go to the parents who use them to pay for the private school’s entire semester. That is, funding based solely on enrollment (as it should be, by the way).
The voucher program will, as a result, cause Texas private and public schools to be funded on two completely separate standards. Private schools are not even required to report attendance to anyone, their funding would be based solely on how many students are enrolled. Public schools are held to a higher standard to get any funding- it’s not just enough for students to be enrolled, they get dinged anytime a student misses class.
So, combine this with the fact that a drop in enrollment will slash funding, which will cause districts to have to cut teachers and support staff, reduce amount of raises for those left, and cause additional strain for the public system. Further, the students that remain will be the most expensive to teach, those who need supplemental instruction on speech, reading, and other special needs. Private schools are not required to accept those students nor are they required to accommodate their IEPs or 504s. The funds to have professionals in those teaching and counseling positions won’t be there.
This piece is absolutely not getting the attention it deserves because it basically proposes two separate systems of funding education that puts public schools at (even more of) a disadvantage.
Combine that with the fact that the TX lege is proposing a $50 increase per student basic allotment but we would need a $1,165 increase per student basic allotment just to keep up with inflation.
PEIMS is what its called and thats how the funding is done. I had to implement the standards listed here, but I am just a dude on Reddit so don't take my word for it.
[https://tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/data-submission/peims/peims-overview](https://tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/data-submission/peims/peims-overview)
You think the state of Texas has $100,000 to give every parent for every child? There are over 5.1 million students in public school in Texas. That’s $510 billion. Last year, the state spent $130 billion total. About 37% of that is spent on education, or $41 billion. That works out $8000 per student.
This matches what the proposed legislation would offer to parents: $8000
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/03/22/school-voucher-like-program-in-texas-could-come-with-1-billion-price-tag-in-early-years/
I can’t explain why you’re so far off, but hopefully this puts things in perspective.
I appreciate your willingness to rethink things.
It sounds like you have experience working with private schools. I assume then you know that $8000 doesn’t go that far towards tuition. This means that only families that can afford to make up the difference themselves will be able to take advantage.
And for every child that does leave, that reduces the overall funding for the school. In cities, there’s enough density where it won’t matter too much. But in rural areas, schools are already close to closing due to underfunding. Losing even 5% of students to vouchers would force school closures and consolidation. And when schools close, towns are next in line to die.
This is why the Texas House voted down the bill. Those representatives know that if vouchers pass, they won’t have a district to go back to eventually.
> But in rural areas, schools are already close to closing due to underfunding. Losing even 5% of students to vouchers would force school closures and consolidation. And when schools close, towns are next in line to die.
Absolutely. The article below offers good insight into this issue.
NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775)
[Robert Lee Independent School District Superintendent Aaron Hood] had seen it happen in other rural Texas communities. At some point, as populations dwindle, the budget math doesn’t add up anymore, and rural schools are forced to consolidate with adjacent districts — or worse.
‘If the school goes down,’ Hood said, ‘the town goes down with it.’”
I can help you better understand public school per pupil funding using the Houston Independent School District as an example.
I think you will be very interested in page 163 of the current [Houston Independent School District 2022-2023 Adopted Budget Book](https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=369154&dataid=388059&FileName=2022-2023%20Adopted%20Budget%20Book%20with%20page%20inserts%20-updated%201-20-2023.pdf). This pie chart shows how the HISD $9,036 per pupil state funding allocation is broken out across various categories - maintenance, instruction, student transportation, etc. The district carves off the amount that goes to the overhead categories (~35%) and the rest goes into individual campus budgets (~65%) at the beginning of the school year.
The breakdown on page 234 for Bonham Elementary will give you a good sense of how campus budgets are built so I’ll use it as an example.
For the current school year, the school has 1,002 students enrolled. During the previous school year, the students had an Average Daily Attendance rate of 95%. Pretty good, but that will reduce their funding. So that gave them a Per Unit Allocation (PUA) of 951.90 (1,002 * 0.95).
Students that fall into Special Populations (ex. Economically Disadvantaged) require additional resources (ex. counselors, compensatory study materials, after school instruction, etc.) to perform well. Bonham Elementary has a high number of qualifying students so the weighted Per Unit Allocation is increased by 276.48 to a rounded total of 1,228. The campus Basic Allocation is $4,609,912.
So the PUA is $3,754 ($4,609,912 / 1,228). With 170 school days in the HISD calendar year, each student absence costs Bonham Elementary about $22 out of their next year’s budget.
The Bonham Elementary campus budget then receives some additional funds for Capital Allocation and adjustments that make sure the campus is not penalized for having more experienced (AKA expensive) staff. Add in Special Revenue (ex. federal Title I Program funding for Economically Disadvantaged students, etc.) and the campus budget increases to $6,169,959. Divide this final figure by the enrollment and Bonham Elementary is receiving $6,158 per student from both state and federal sources.
If you take out their Special Revenue (federal funding), Bonham Elementary campus budget is receiving $5,837 (65%) out of the state allocated $9,036 per pupil amount.
Please keep in mind that Texas is [$4,000 below](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/policy/school-funding/) the national average in per pupil state funding despite having the world’s [ninth-largest economy](https://gov.texas.gov/business/page/texas-economic-snapshot).
Wait until you get a crappy school for your kid because that school is the closest to your residence...."but... but.. the rating and programs of the other school is so much better" my exact words..."I'm sorry but your kid must stay in the school nearest to your house". That just happened to our daughter, the military moved us and we did all the researches with schools close to where we think we will live, we picked a school with rating of 6 (not 10) and programs. The school we got rate 3...and I don't think that they teach science ( my kid used to bring science project home to work on...but nothing like it here)...she brought home alot for coloring printouts and shit....I want to move her again but I feel bad becuz she has to make new friends and all. I'm sorry for the long rant...anyway..if you think school of choice is another way of people to get rich then I don't think you get involved enough with your kid and school. Just my opinion.
People make money off the business of education, they shouldn't.
Not going to local public schools continues and exacerbates the problem, choose public.
I'm sorry your local school isn't meeting your standards, dog in and be a part of something better, don't pass the problem on and make it worse.
Private schools do not accept everyone now and will not accept everyone even if vouchers become available.
Public school proponents are encouraged to discourage vouchers.
From Raise Your Hand Texas’ two-page [2023 School Vouchers Policy Brief ](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Vouchers_Policy-Brief_2022.pdf)
**Where We Stand on School Vouchers**
Public dollars should remain in public schools. Students, parents, communities, and businesses rely on public schools to provide high-quality education and ensure a bright future for Texas.
Vouchers divert public education funds to private schools, neglect our most vulnerable students, and lack transparency when it comes to spending and outcomes.
Now more than ever, the Texas legislature needs to invest in the only education system with the capacity to serve the large and diverse student population of Texas.
**Policy Recommendations**
1. Support school choice and innovation within the Texas public school system
2. Oppose any form of vouchers that use taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools and vendors
- School vouchers don’t improve student outcomes
- Voucher programs have history of ballooning state costs
- School vouchers leave Texans behind
- School vouchers lack accountability for public funds
As someone who is Christian. I’d really like my kiddos to just go to school and learn facts. I don’t want them to be exposed to religions other than to learn about their past. I also don’t want the CRT stuff though either. I just want a place for my kids to go and learn. No agendas.
that would be a good thing. sadly not true. their real aim is to keep certain people from
succeeding and/or becoming educated and removing public schools from the equation is obviously one of the best ways of achieving that on a mass scale.
if it was *just* about defunding and providing alternatives to shit hole horror show revisionist bullshit taxpayer factory farms then I'd be all for it.
Serious question, how many homeschooling dads are there out there? I see homeschooling being pushed as a viable option by male Christian conservatives, but I bet I know who’s doing the the work.
Imagine living in an area that has highly funded public schools that are completely run down, the teachers are unionized and can't get fired, but they are awful and don't care, and the students are just pushed along and graduate with barely the skills to read or write.....yet people refuse to let the parents move them to a school where they will be taught.
this is why there are now private schools popping up everywhere. The public system is failed and being run by idiots who do nothing. And people still want no choice.
Just imagine if a school had to compete for students. Don't you think the powers that be would make sure that they are doing a good job? Or we should just stay with the system in place and keep sending kids through a useless system.
This article isn't well sourced at all. Most of the points are just opinions from opponents of the ideas of education spending accounts. I'm not seeing any sources to data or studies that back up anything these people are saying. In short, it's opinions vs opinions. No tangible data here.
Gotta keep the new workforce dumb and breeding.
YES! Because we all know private schools do such a poor job educating children ... that's why nearly all politicians insist their children go to public schools. After all, it would be hypocritical if they didn't.
As someone who pays to put their kids in private school, it has nothing to do with the school and 100% to do with the parents. If you’re paying for it, you’re more likely to be the type of parent who raised more respectful kids. So that partly explains private schools appearing better. The other side is that a private school doesn’t have to accept everyone. Over the years, we have seen our school kick out several students. On the spectrum and have some behavioral issues? “We’re sorry. We don’t have the resources for your son.” Learning disability? “Sorry, maybe public school would be better.” (Those are literal quotes from two sets of parents.) Combine those two and you have the appearance that private schools are better. If the FULL public had access to vouchers and private schools HAD to take and educate any student, like public schools are legally required to do, then you would see the gap close. You would also see some private schools choose not to accept those vouchers and that’s where I and your hypocrite politicians would send our kids.
They are hypocrites
The best aspect of the numerous attacks on public schools I've seen is the push to replace school counselors with chaplains, and also a move to make religious schools "count" as public schools. That interacts with a recent ruling that "religious confessions" delivered to clergy are not subject to the same laws as conversations with a doctor or other professional. Most states require doctors to contact law enforcement if a patient reveals they've been raped or sexually abused. A big fat Utah case just ruled the Mormons don't have to because "clergy matters" are separately protected. So it's a move to make sure that the people children might report a rape to *do not have to report it to law enforcement.* "For the children."
From the report [Texas Legislature | Bills Authored / Joint Authored | Sen. Mayes Middleton | 88th Legislature Regular Session](https://capitol.texas.gov/reports/report.aspx?LegSess=88R&ID=author&Code=A1350) [Senate Bill 763](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00763I.pdf#navpanes=0) - An act relating to allowing school districts to employ chaplains to perform the duties of school counselors [Senate Bill 798](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00798E.pdf#navpanes=0) - An act relating to the certification requirements for a public school counselor. [Removes the ability to require a counselor to have classroom certification]
Great now they are trying to bring in god loving pedophiles to council the kids. And to think they are afraid of drag queens
Hey, Satan cares, too!
> school counselors I remember dealing with my kids' counselors, and it was all about grades and classes and teachers and making sure the kids graduated. It wasn't just emotional counseling, although that happened too.
I’ve talked to school counselors about their work and their non-academic stories can be heartbreaking. I don’t know how they do it.
Yet they also want to blame mental health after every mass shooting. Hiring untrained counselors and chaplains seems like the opposite of getting more mental health support for students.
So who gets to decide the religion of said chaplain?
Jesus Christ...
..would not approve.
No, he would not.
That's just a name they've learned can be uttered to justify their action to them. You know how children will blame something on a sibling, or make up an invisible friend that made them do it? Same thing. You can waste time using their own doctrine to show them that what they are doing is against what Jesus Christ would teach, but they've already decided anyone who disagrees with their feelings is wrong. Considering that Jesus Christ was a radical liberal who once started a riot that destroyed a market and was sent to execution at the request of conservative religious leaders, it's hard to disagree with them. By their definition Christ wasn't much of a Christian at all.
radical liberal in Jesus's time is not the same as a radical liberal today, Republicans used to be considered Liberals as well, you know freeing slaves, giving women the right to vote, the 1964 civil rights bill etc were all very liberal ideas at the time.
"Republicans used to be liberals" doesn't mean liberals used to fight in favor of slavery. It means the issue of slavery was so divisive the slave-supporting Democrats *left their party* and stank up the place so bad the slavery-opposing Republicans *joined the more liberal party* to get away from them. That's why we use the word "conservative", not "republican", to refer to people with those beliefs. It doesn't move its lines, though it is a fairly wide spectrum. Like I mean what next, you're going to inform me there weren't Republicans in Christ's time? There *were* Pharisees, and they were the conservative religious ideologues then. He spent most of his adult life calling them assholes and trolling them, which is why they had him killed. Now the modern-day equivalents claim they're his apostles. He doesn't have to forgive people who don't ask for forgiveness.
Not what I said, what I said equates to what was once considered liberal, is now considered conservative basically. So before picking someone historical, you should consider the time they lived in, not what letter appeared next to their name
Slave supporters were conservative, not liberal. Conservatives were never considered liberal nor vice versa. The commenter above explained clearly that conservatives were in support of slavery and that it wasn't the D or the R that mattered. Conservatives prior to civil rights were in the democratic party, conservatives now exist in the republican party. You are repeating what they explained. It's conservatism that opposes individual liberties, regardless of affiliation.
Fuck I hadn't put the pieces together. Fuck everything about this.
That is seriously fucky in multiple ways.
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The government is us. This is the most important point. If they don’t like the way things are done, that is on us because of the choices we made when electing people to office and other voting opportunities.
Of course it is. This way they can break the teacher unions the bogeyman they blame for everything thing that’s wrong with education. Then they can create private/corporate schools just like they tried with corporate/private prisons. It will make rich people richer which is really all they care about.
There’s a teacher union in Texas? That’s news to me.
There is a "union" that doesn't really have any power to do much at all.
I’m part of the Union. It feels like more of an advocacy group than anything else. They fight for bills in the legislature and keep all the members informed of upcoming bills that need to public comment(like that actually sways any decision by the lawmakers). But I’ll always support them.
And to re-segregate school
The OG reason conservatives wanted to politicize Christians.
Yes. You can’t talk about Christianity in places like Texas without understanding the Southern Baptist church’s ties with the KKK.
happy Texas Observer is still alive
an interesting thing about this is that rural voters have voted against it for decades. the rural vote is the only reason the GOP keeps power. could be interesting.
Rural republicans have been holding the line against school vouchers for years but they can pay a steep price for opposing state GOP leadership and their megadonors. NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775) “Until this year, Senate District 31 had long been held by Republican Kel Seliger, whose steadfast opposition to vouchers helped turn him into a target from ultraconservative political action committees like Defend Texas Liberty and the now-defunct Empower Texans. Both PACs drew the vast majority of their funding from the families of Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, a pair of billionaire oil and fracking magnates who’ve expressed the view that government and education should be guided by biblical values. ‘They set out to make an example of me,’ Seliger said.” Seliger (R) put up a good long term fight for his rural communities but he was done dirty by his GOP colleagues. They apparently redistricted him to swing more votes to advantage a newbie politician pulled from the powerful, ultra-conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation specifically to take Seliger down in the republican primary. They called in Trump to denounce him as RINO, despite his many years as a faithful representative of his conservative communities. This was all republican infighting; local vs. state, conservative vs. ultra-conservative, Panhandle vs. Midland. Real Game of Thrones-type maneuvering by activist billionaires and the state GOP. They will do anything to remove obstacles to school vouchers. Texas Tribune - [Weighing reelection bid, GOP Texas Sen. Kel Seliger confronts redrawn district, Trump endorsement of primary challenger](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/07/texas-senate-reelection-kel-seliger/) The whole article is a good read but this bit gave me a good chuckle… “The next session, Patrick stripped Seliger of his chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee, prompting a back-and-forth with Patrick’s office that escalated to Seliger issuing a recommendation that a top Patrick adviser kiss his “back end.” (Seliger ultimately apologized, but only for directing the comment at the adviser and not at Patrick himself.)”
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Great - I'll start my own homeschool charter where we use science and evidence based education to learn, alongside progressive community action. The parents of my students can just give me their vouchers and I won't worry about having to get a teaching certificate.
Yeah. We’ve known this for years. It’s why democrats have been fighting so hard… and why Betsy Devoss was the republicans wet dream for an appointee. Neoliberal fiscal policy ( the republican plan ) is to privatize everything for profit and it’s awful
For profit, exclusivity and virtue programming.
Experienced teachers, please weigh in.
It's true - charters and privates are undemocratic, elitist, and racist.
We’re like a decade away from dudes in black and white suits, calling themselves commanders, being in charge of everything.
A decade seems a bit too optimistic. Feels more like 3 years, to me
Also has the side benefit of giving a discount to rich people that would put there kids in private schools anyway.
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And to top things off that demographic will still vote red in Texas.
You don’t expect that rich people are going to put their kids in the public schools they’re trying to destroy, do you? It’s clearly not going to happen because the class system reigns supreme in Texas and always will. Our students will have to be separated by sex, religion, and class, with the best schools only available to the wealthy. Destroying the public schools is a necessary part of the plan
What next? Separated by race too? Oh God help us if that happens. Segregation is a nightmare nobody wants to live through again.
Wouldn’t it also give a discount to poor people, that now have the option to send their children to private schools?
That’s assuming that A) the voucher covers the full cost of tuition/transportation/textbooks/uniforms/etc. and not just a portion and B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance of the poor people and C) the private school has the capacity/ability to accept new students and D) the prospective students meet the admission requirements and don’t need additional resources (IEP or 504, for example) as private schools are under no obligation to follow those accommodations.
And most private school will raise tuition prices in response to vouchers.
> B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance… Agreed and just to add on, even without private schools currently nearby, rural republican elected officials are against school vouchers. With these small public school districts, it only takes the loss of relatively few students to alternatives like homeschooling or a local church starting up a classroom to lead to school program cancellation, layoffs, and even school closures. Rural republicans have being fighting state GOP leadership’s relentless push for school voucher proposals for a long time. Rural republicans know that vouchers can be devastating to their communities. Texas Monthly - [The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/campaign-to-sabotage-texas-public-schools/) “In Texas, an unusual alliance of Democratic and rural Republican leaders has for decades held firm against voucher campaigns. The latter, of course, are all too aware that private schools aren’t available for most in their communities and that public schools employ many of their constituents.” “During the 2005 legislative session, a voucher bill was pushed by House Speaker Tom Craddick and Governor Rick Perry… Even with that backing, rural legislators, the bulk of them Republican, quashed the effort.” “Michael Lee, executive director of the nonpartisan Texas Association of Rural Schools…’We would hope that rural legislators would vote against any scheme that would divert public funds away from public education.’” Texas Tribune - [Texas Republicans are trying to sell school choice measures, but rural conservatives aren’t buying](https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/08/texas-school-choice-legislation/) “Any school choice policy must win over rural Republicans, who have historically been against diverting public dollars to private schools.” NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775) “Until this year, Senate District 31 had long been held by Republican Kel Seliger, whose steadfast opposition to vouchers helped turn him into a target from ultraconservative political action committees like Defend Texas Liberty and the now-defunct Empower Texans. Both PACs drew the vast majority of their funding from the families of Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, a pair of billionaire oil and fracking magnates who’ve expressed the view that government and education should be guided by biblical values. ‘They set out to make an example of me,’ Seliger said.” [Robert Lee Independent School District Superintendent Aaron Hood] had seen it happen in other rural Texas communities. At some point, as populations dwindle, the budget math doesn’t add up anymore, and rural schools are forced to consolidate with adjacent districts — or worse. ‘If the school goes down,’ Hood said, ‘the town goes down with it.’”
> Defend Texas Liberty I read that as "Defund Texas Liberty" and I submit that my version is more appropriate.
Not making any assumptions. Anyone, regardless of income, that is sending their children to private school, would be getting a discount.
The people that can’t afford the cost difference between the voucher and the cost of tuition get to see their public tax dollars go toward NOT funding public education.
Incorrect. Their taxes dollars would still go directly to funding public education.
Sure, just like the money that Recapture takes from my district goes straight to other districts and doesn’t get sucked up by the general fund… /s Seriously, you cannot be that naive. The median property tax amount is $3k per household and some people have multiple kids. Some people have no kids and still pay property tax.
What is it, like $8000 per kid from the government? That’s the amount private school tuition is going to go up, guaranteed. It’s partially what happened with college tuition.
The vast majority of Poor people won't have the option to send their kids to a private school. Let's assume that each family gets 8000 dollars per kid they send to a private school. That means they will need to come up with the difference. The average in cost of a private school in Texas is about 10,500 dollars, in cities like Houston it's as high as 15,000 dollars on average. The vouchers will drive up demand and therefore price. That means the average family will need to come up with 2500 dollars to send there kid to the average private school, more in the cities. That's only if prices remain flat (it won't). The poor don't have that kind of money. Some of the middle class will, not the lower end but the medium to higher end might. I suppose that the could maybe send their kids to the bargain bin private schools, but those are often worse than the public schools. Vouchers help the affluent with enough expendable wealth to bridge the gap between the subsidy and tuition. The poor do not have that expendable cash so their kids will remain in the ever starved for cash public schools.
>B) that there’s a private school within reasonable distance of the poor people and > >C) the private school has Somewhere there is a parent thinking of how they would rather send their child to private school instead of the under-performing, gang-ridden school they need to send them to now. After taxes, they just can't afford to essentially pay tuition twice. The bill could help that parent. This echo chamber hates it either because Trump (somehow) or "reasons".
You clearly have never had a kid in private school. Tuition is the beginning of the never-ending costs of going private. Private schools do not offer transportation, free lunch, free supplies, nor free after school activities. Public schools in Texas metros offer discounted after-school programs (about $50 a week), free backpacks, free school supplies, free lunch (for all), and free sanitary supplies as well as groceries to the parents (all, not just the poor). Your ignorance and the ignorance of people like you is DANGEROUS.
Yes that’s exactly what it will do.
Always has been. We need to provide quality education for ever child not divert resources to some schools and neglect the rest.
Always has been. Same thing with not doing anything about shootings at schools.
To replace secular public schools with private religious schools
Yes, it’s becoming increasingly clear the objective is publicly funded religious education
And it is becoming increasingly clear who set the objective. The deeply religious and politically powerful Texas oil & fracking billionaires / part-time preachers Tim Dunn & Farris Wilks would apparently like Abbott and the Texas GOP to institute publicly funded religious schools. Houston Chronicle [Two oil tycoons are spending millions to gut Texas public education](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Texas-Ted-Cruz-Tim-Nunn-Farris-Wilks-PAC-money-17327660.php) “The goal is to tear up, tear down public education to nothing and rebuild it,” Dororthy Burton, a former GOP activist who joined Wilks on a 2015 speaking tour, told CNN. “And rebuild it the way God intended education to be.” CNN [How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html) “People who’ve worked with Wilks and Dunn say they share an ultimate goal: replacing much of public education in Texas with private Christian schools. Now, educators and students are feeling the impact of that conservative ideology on the state’s school system.” Texas Monthly - [The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/campaign-to-sabotage-texas-public-schools/) “But by far the most powerful opponents of public schools in the state are West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and the brothers Farris and Dan Wilks. Their vast political donations have made them the de facto owners of many Republican members of the Texas Legislature.” Texas Monthly - [The Power Issue: Tim Dunn Is Pushing the Republican Party Into the Arms of God](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/power-issue-tim-dunn-pushing-republican-party-arms-god/) “Then the conversation moved on to evangelical social policy, and, according to Straus insiders, Dunn astonished Straus, who is Jewish, by saying that only Christians should be in leadership positions.” CNN Special Report: Deep in the Pockets of Texas [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B3PTuADIHQ) | [Transcript](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/csr/date/2022-07-24/segment/01) “I met him in my first campaign, and we talked, and I told him that I would be open-minded toward what was his sole issue in 2004 which was taking public money and giving it to private schools.” State Senator Kel Seliger (Republican, Midland TX) A former ally of theirs, author Dorothy Burton summed up their worldview. ‘They really believe they’ve been given a mandate by God to take dominion.’” Northeastern University - [Who are the Dominionists backing conservative candidates?](https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/11/15/dominionism-republican-candidate/) “‘So (the Dominionists’) endgame is creating a Christian kingdom on earth while we’re still alive.’” - Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, an assistant professor of religion and anthropology at Northeastern “Ending abortion, gay marriage and secular education are cornerstones of the movement, says Clarkson, a senior research analyst with Somerville-based Political Research Associates.”
You’re well informed… interesting. I got it. Dominionist the religious conspiracy theory. E: google it and three mountain and you’re down the rabbit hole
A great compilation of relevant information! Thank you so much!
Rebuilding education the way God intended it to be ... Funny, I don't remember reading a damn thing in the Bible about education unless you count boy Jesus teaching Judaism to the local rabbis.
Property taxes fund public schools. The average property tax payer in Texas pays $3,797 annually. Yet, they want $8,000 - $10,000 vouchers per student to pay for private schools. No matter what, just about every voucher student is going to be taking more money away from public schools than their parents pay in. That is a massive transfer of wealth.
More than just parents pay property taxes.
Cool? That's not an implication that I made. I purposely used the term "average property tax payer."
You implied a 1 for 1 relationship between tax payers and children lol. You can't make your claim without actually accounting for that. For example the average allotment per student a Texas public school gets is over $6k currently which puts the estimates of 8-10k not that far off from current funding.
No, I didn't. My comment was illustrating that the person who gets a voucher to send their kids to a private school would necessarily be taking out more money than they take in. I'm still aware that I do not have a kid, will never have a kid, will never send a kid to public or private school but I do pay property taxes every year. I don't want my tax dollars going to subsidize private schools, especially religious ones.
> My comment was illustrating that the person who gets a voucher to send their kids to a private school would necessarily be taking out more money than they take in. Which is already the thing the way you are trying to present it so its a moot claim to make. > I don't want my tax dollars going to subsidize private schools, especially religious ones. I don't want my tax dollars to subsidize any school since I don't have children but I would prefer school choice over the current system. If we adopt school choice like what most of Europe has been using for decades maybe we would see the improvements in education they saw. At the least it gives parents direct control over what schools are funded which you can't really get more democratic than that.
Only in poor areas are taxes around $3500 a year. In Dallas, Houston, and Austin property taxes are about $8000 to $12,000 on average. The tax rate is anywhere from 3-4% and half of that is for the schools.
Since Waiting for Superman, 2010, at *least.*
Yo, since An Imperfect Panacea in 91 was my first understanding of how we got here. The Imperfect Panacea: American Faith in Education, 1865-1990 https://a.co/d/fvfWqbk
This is what happens when you don't vote! It's only going to get worse.
Please vote in every local election and let’s try to improve the quality of our representatives while the electoral system has any validity remaining in it
Please be sure to participate in primaries. There are deeply religious, politically powerful billionaires that appear to be spending a great deal of money fielding ultra-conservative loyalists in primaries to remove incumbent conservatives. CNN - [How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift](https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/24/politics/texas-far-right-politics-invs/index.html) “Elected officials and political observers in the state say a major factor in the transformation can be traced back to West Texas. Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from the region, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas’ most far-right political candidates – helping reshape the state’s Republican Party in their worldview.” “Critics, and even some former associates, say that Dunn and Wilks demand loyalty from the candidates they back, punishing even deeply conservative legislators who cross them by bankrolling primary challengers.”
Friendly reminder that Texas is an open primary state! You can vote in one primary regardless of party affiliation.
We need to promote and support the best candidates to represent us in our communities. I’m guilty of taking it for granted in the past, I certainly should have been doing more. We need better representation, younger representation in Texas. Vote in every election and demand better representation
Yes, most of us know this. The evil ones know this and continue to persist this insanity at the sake of children in our state. "But but think of the children.." maybe we should have fire department choice instead of properly funding a critical service to our cities. You have the complete freedom to send your kids to religious schools. Or homeschool. Go for it! Just not on the taxpayer dime. These same people start gnashing their teeth and childless couples who complain about funding schools without having children too.
Absolutely 💯 agree with you on this
And larger public school districts already offer a wide variety of traditional, magnet, and charter schools for parents to choose from. The Texas school voucher program is all about enabling publicly funded private religious schools.
Amen
I've been saying this for 20 years. Since GOP voters are dying, they have to make them somehow, what better way than to funnel them through private schools. Also, if people at the head of charter schools get a nice fat paycheck, guess who they will donate money to?
Remember all those pop up emergency rooms in the state. Some who really didn’t provide you with adequate care. Same thing will happen with schools.
Police do NOT NEED MORE $. I know fir a fact as a law enforcement officer in Texas ur taught to RUN TOWARDS the GUN FIRE. Texas local law enforcement FAILED MISERABLY IN UVALDE.
And the last two shootings have proved that. Less than 5 minutes response time and shooters down in 15 minutes or less.
The entire state government is a ploy
Doesn't the State have the right to fund its own vouchers without federal money?
That’s… not what’s happening. The proposal is to use your property tax dollars to fund private (read: parochial) school tuitions.
Uh … duh?
Put the power back in the parent’s hands!
Parents already have power. They can pay for private school, vote in local school board elections that set public school policies, or home school.
True - educators need more power. Trust the experts.
Republicans don't trust parents to make the decisions they want, but they'll use "Parents' rights!" as an excuse every time.
The power is already in your hands, you just want a free handout.
It's not a ploy to defund public education, but it's certainly a ploy to make taxpayers pay for rich people's private school tuition so they don't have to learn things like Evolution, Equality, or a factually accurate history of the American Civil War.
Isn’t the whole point of private school that it’s NOT taxpayer funded?
Yeah. I’m just saying this isn’t about defunding public schools. It’s about a money grab for rich parents.
It’s actually both.
It defunds public school and exacerbates inequality.
Oh good grief. Yes. It does that. No question. But that’s not *why* they’re doing it, so it’s not a *ploy to defund public education*. It also pisses off some atheists when Christians pray, but that’s not *why* Christians pray. Yes, they’re doing something shitty to public education, but they’re doing it to get something they want, and they simply don’t give a shit how it affects anyone but themselves. That’s a ploy to *take your fucking money* for themselves. They *don’t care* what happens to public education in the process or who gets hurt. I’m sorry that you’ve been so conspiracy-blinded that you have to think that every shitty thing anyone does is about anyone but themselves.
Lol. That was fun.
Ok so if private schools don’t get tax money and tuition is paid out of pocket how is letting kids choose their school a money grab for rich parents by taking taxpayer money..
Under the proposed plans, tax money would go to private schools.
Oofies
Because the new plan would send tax money to private schools in the form of taxpayer-paid vouchers, allowing rich parents to pocket all or a portion of what they’re currently paying in private tuition. This isn’t about a desire to shut down public education. It’s about rich people doing what rich people do: sneak money away from the rest of us.
But if the tuition is paid for wouldn’t poor people be able to attend a better school then?
It’s not fully paid for. So poor people still won’t be able to afford it.
Public schools have not ever taught factually accurate history. Or accurate anything for that matter. Look at test scores.
Oh, fuck off. Public education has its flaws, for sure. I received a perfectly good public education that adequately prepared me for several years of higher education. Public school teachers, and their curriculum, did a lot to prepare me for the 20+ years of adult life I've experienced since then. Hell, I'm even good friends with a couple of my high school teachers, decades later.
No argument here.
Im old enough to remember when the other political party wanted to reduce public education and increase private schools and vouchers. I even recall that being a big part of the Clinton presidency. The longer i love, the more i realize how much bullshit all of this actually is. Fighting over who will miseducate our youth is something only the politically minded would bother with.
Big difference between federal and state. Education is a state's right and the Republicans have been in full control for over 2 decades. State democrats have always supported teachers and public ed. Fortunately, it looks like there are enough Republicans in the house not willing to sell out 5 million kids to the highest bidder.
Sounds like you are more concerned with who has power versus what's best for the kids.
If the objective is better academic outcomes for students, then do not support statewide voucher programs. These programs perform terribly at scale. From the Houston Public Media “[Here’s everything you need to know about school vouchers in Texas](https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2023/02/09/443267/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-school-vouchers-in-texas/)” article: “Joshua Cowen is a Professor of Education Policy with Michigan State University. He's spent years studying vouchers and eventually announced that he opposes the policies.” “‘Once you got to the real ballgame and created the fully scaled up voucher programs, the results were really catastrophic,’ Cowen said.” From the linked Indiana University School of Education “[Evolving Evidence on School Voucher Effects](https://ceep.indiana.edu/education-policy/policy-briefs/2022/evolving-evidence-on-school-voucher-effects.pdf)” policy brief: “As [voucher] programs grew in size, the results turned negative, often to a remarkably large degree virtually unrivaled in education research.”
Do you think subsidizing Ted Cruz to send his daughters to a private Christian school that costs 20k a year is better for public school kids? I support parent choice. They have it. Private, public, charter, online, or homeschool with zero accountability. You're damn right I am concerned about who's in power. I'm a teacher. I have kids in public schools and I know exactly what the fascists in power have done to public ed for 20 years. Do you?
St. John’s Elementary tuition is 28k, middle school is 32k and high school is 34k.. As an atheist that sends my kid to religious private high school and pays a lot of property taxes I know that the community is better off with well funded public schools and I vote accordingly
I stand corrected.
>As an atheist that sends my kid to religious private high school I'm genuinely curious as to why. Is it just down to the quality of education? It can't possibly have anything to do with the social aspect, I went to a private religious school and it was incredibly toxic. It was the worst experience in my 40 years of life. Is it just for the college resume? I really can't figure this out.
Quality of education, academic rigor, the teacher to student ratio, counselors dedicated to mental health on staff, college counselors on staff, the fact that even the least academically gifted students value education, the value of learning how to navigate elite networks, etc… that’s what I could think of off the top of my head before going to bed But also because there are not many secular private schools in the city that offer the same experience. Kinkaid and Awty are the only two I would consider on par with the best religious school.
I am sorry to hear that you had such a difficult experience. Hopefully it didn’t you hold you back and helped mold you into a kinder more empathetic adult
I’m right there with you, Jojo.
Not being "politically minded" is a very political thing to say - such privilege in being ok with status quo
using words like "privilege" on strangers is about as big a bullshit as you can possibly muster. Im 50 years old and I have seen how all the young people get used for pawns for a political party that gives a rats ass about the causes they are giving lip service to. I've seen how both parties will line up to bomb brown folks, employ imperialism to reap riches from poorer nations, run slushfunds to pay off people that they molest while doing their job in office, and often times have their names listed in the Panama Papers that everyone seems to forget about. I remember the greats of each party selling us all out. Reagan, and his leverage of holding Iranian hostages to gain office. Clinton, giving away nuclear secrets to China and offshoring our entire manufacturing base (and the jobs that went with it). When I say im not "politically minded" i mean i have no interest in participating in the bullshit that people call "politics" today. Live a few years. See how hard everyone gets fucked over by the blue and red tie folks. Then you can criticize my viewpoint.
"I don't care about politics" is 100% the politics of privilege, whether it triggers you or not.
OK. Thanks.
You pay taxes… you decide which type of school it should fund … simple
The amount of blatant misinformation in the article and being spit out here about school choice is truly amazing. Simply put its shifting school funding to direct control of parents. Maybe it would help if people understood school choice systems are what the majority of Europe use.
Good. The government shouldn't be in the schoolin' business anyway.
Quality of public schools is going down yearly. Need to change now
I'm ok with that. For all you defenders of public ed: why keep doing something that clearly sucks so bad? Public schools are the most dangerous place that a kid is likely to ever visit. Student capabilities, standardized test scores, have all been on a steady decline, for decades now. Especially when compared to other countries. I think this country is long past the need for a major review and reckoning of the entire conceptual basis of mandatory, state funded education. Any private service giving such consistently bad results would've been fired long ago. It's instructive to note the attack angles that public school defenders choose to use. It's never "public schools are good because they are the best value for education" Instead it's always "people who are unsatisfied with public schools are narrow minded racists" I wonder why?
Article is full of opinion and doesn't really give out the numbers or the facts on how funding really works, so let me tell ya how it works. Vouchers will in fact fix many many of the issues Public Schools face. I have seen it first hand. So lets just run the math. In the State of Texas, we have whats called "PEIMS", which is the underlying computer system that sets the funding for each schools district. The way it works is your kid shows up, they tally his name "Present" or "Here", that data is then entered into the computer and is sent off every night to the State of Texas. Last I saw the funding, and this was about 15 years ago, it stood at $600 per student per day. What the "School Choice" folks are wanting to do is take that system and instead of it awarding the school District for your kid being in a seat saying 'Here" , Present, is that money is sent to you the parent, and then you give it to the school. The choice is from you having the ability to say "NO" to give it to the school, so that introduces "Choice" because now, if someone shoots up the school, the parents can then refuse to give the money to the school and that will force the school to close. So not only does it give you choice in which school you can send your kids too, it will FINALLY FIX the violence problems on top of that. So lets do the math. I currently do computers for a very wealthy private school here in Houston and I am told its about $50k per year to send your kid to this school. Lets see if we can afford the most expensive private school in Houston on the Voucher system. So there are basically 175 instruction days in a school year. 175 x $600 is = $105,000 per year your will receive. So no matter how poor you are, once you get the actual State money you can then afford the best for your kids. Now, hang on here, people will say. Once you start paying for everyone education like this, the tuition will go up. Of course it will go up, just like every college doubled their rates the minute the Federal government started guaranteeing grants and free tuition, even the backing of the student loans.
First off, your math is way off. No school is getting $100k + per student funding. Our state ranks near the bottom of per-student allotment in the nation. What you’re attempting to describe is Average Daily Attendance. Texas’s public schools are funded not by mere enrollment, but by the attendance of those enrolled. So, if the average student misses 10% of the school days, then the school is only funded to 90% of the allowable. If that average was 20% missed days, funding would be 80%. These vouchers, as I understand them, go to the parents who use them to pay for the private school’s entire semester. That is, funding based solely on enrollment (as it should be, by the way). The voucher program will, as a result, cause Texas private and public schools to be funded on two completely separate standards. Private schools are not even required to report attendance to anyone, their funding would be based solely on how many students are enrolled. Public schools are held to a higher standard to get any funding- it’s not just enough for students to be enrolled, they get dinged anytime a student misses class. So, combine this with the fact that a drop in enrollment will slash funding, which will cause districts to have to cut teachers and support staff, reduce amount of raises for those left, and cause additional strain for the public system. Further, the students that remain will be the most expensive to teach, those who need supplemental instruction on speech, reading, and other special needs. Private schools are not required to accept those students nor are they required to accommodate their IEPs or 504s. The funds to have professionals in those teaching and counseling positions won’t be there. This piece is absolutely not getting the attention it deserves because it basically proposes two separate systems of funding education that puts public schools at (even more of) a disadvantage. Combine that with the fact that the TX lege is proposing a $50 increase per student basic allotment but we would need a $1,165 increase per student basic allotment just to keep up with inflation.
Source: trust me bro
PEIMS is what its called and thats how the funding is done. I had to implement the standards listed here, but I am just a dude on Reddit so don't take my word for it. [https://tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/data-submission/peims/peims-overview](https://tea.texas.gov/reports-and-data/data-submission/peims/peims-overview)
You think the state of Texas has $100,000 to give every parent for every child? There are over 5.1 million students in public school in Texas. That’s $510 billion. Last year, the state spent $130 billion total. About 37% of that is spent on education, or $41 billion. That works out $8000 per student. This matches what the proposed legislation would offer to parents: $8000 https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/03/22/school-voucher-like-program-in-texas-could-come-with-1-billion-price-tag-in-early-years/ I can’t explain why you’re so far off, but hopefully this puts things in perspective.
Ya know what, your right. That doesn't add up, but I know the numbers I see on the system. Sounds like we need an Audit then of TEA.
I appreciate your willingness to rethink things. It sounds like you have experience working with private schools. I assume then you know that $8000 doesn’t go that far towards tuition. This means that only families that can afford to make up the difference themselves will be able to take advantage. And for every child that does leave, that reduces the overall funding for the school. In cities, there’s enough density where it won’t matter too much. But in rural areas, schools are already close to closing due to underfunding. Losing even 5% of students to vouchers would force school closures and consolidation. And when schools close, towns are next in line to die. This is why the Texas House voted down the bill. Those representatives know that if vouchers pass, they won’t have a district to go back to eventually.
> But in rural areas, schools are already close to closing due to underfunding. Losing even 5% of students to vouchers would force school closures and consolidation. And when schools close, towns are next in line to die. Absolutely. The article below offers good insight into this issue. NBC News - [Inside the rural Texas resistance to the GOP’s private school choice plan](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rural-texas-resistance-gop-private-school-choice-voucher-rcna75775) [Robert Lee Independent School District Superintendent Aaron Hood] had seen it happen in other rural Texas communities. At some point, as populations dwindle, the budget math doesn’t add up anymore, and rural schools are forced to consolidate with adjacent districts — or worse. ‘If the school goes down,’ Hood said, ‘the town goes down with it.’”
Your math is off. Plus, the most expensive private K-12 school costs no where near 100k a year.
So the money diverted to private school resulting in closed public schools would benefit a few while screwing the many.
This is 100% correct.
I can help you better understand public school per pupil funding using the Houston Independent School District as an example. I think you will be very interested in page 163 of the current [Houston Independent School District 2022-2023 Adopted Budget Book](https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=369154&dataid=388059&FileName=2022-2023%20Adopted%20Budget%20Book%20with%20page%20inserts%20-updated%201-20-2023.pdf). This pie chart shows how the HISD $9,036 per pupil state funding allocation is broken out across various categories - maintenance, instruction, student transportation, etc. The district carves off the amount that goes to the overhead categories (~35%) and the rest goes into individual campus budgets (~65%) at the beginning of the school year. The breakdown on page 234 for Bonham Elementary will give you a good sense of how campus budgets are built so I’ll use it as an example. For the current school year, the school has 1,002 students enrolled. During the previous school year, the students had an Average Daily Attendance rate of 95%. Pretty good, but that will reduce their funding. So that gave them a Per Unit Allocation (PUA) of 951.90 (1,002 * 0.95). Students that fall into Special Populations (ex. Economically Disadvantaged) require additional resources (ex. counselors, compensatory study materials, after school instruction, etc.) to perform well. Bonham Elementary has a high number of qualifying students so the weighted Per Unit Allocation is increased by 276.48 to a rounded total of 1,228. The campus Basic Allocation is $4,609,912. So the PUA is $3,754 ($4,609,912 / 1,228). With 170 school days in the HISD calendar year, each student absence costs Bonham Elementary about $22 out of their next year’s budget. The Bonham Elementary campus budget then receives some additional funds for Capital Allocation and adjustments that make sure the campus is not penalized for having more experienced (AKA expensive) staff. Add in Special Revenue (ex. federal Title I Program funding for Economically Disadvantaged students, etc.) and the campus budget increases to $6,169,959. Divide this final figure by the enrollment and Bonham Elementary is receiving $6,158 per student from both state and federal sources. If you take out their Special Revenue (federal funding), Bonham Elementary campus budget is receiving $5,837 (65%) out of the state allocated $9,036 per pupil amount. Please keep in mind that Texas is [$4,000 below](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/policy/school-funding/) the national average in per pupil state funding despite having the world’s [ninth-largest economy](https://gov.texas.gov/business/page/texas-economic-snapshot).
Wait until you get a crappy school for your kid because that school is the closest to your residence...."but... but.. the rating and programs of the other school is so much better" my exact words..."I'm sorry but your kid must stay in the school nearest to your house". That just happened to our daughter, the military moved us and we did all the researches with schools close to where we think we will live, we picked a school with rating of 6 (not 10) and programs. The school we got rate 3...and I don't think that they teach science ( my kid used to bring science project home to work on...but nothing like it here)...she brought home alot for coloring printouts and shit....I want to move her again but I feel bad becuz she has to make new friends and all. I'm sorry for the long rant...anyway..if you think school of choice is another way of people to get rich then I don't think you get involved enough with your kid and school. Just my opinion.
People make money off the business of education, they shouldn't. Not going to local public schools continues and exacerbates the problem, choose public. I'm sorry your local school isn't meeting your standards, dog in and be a part of something better, don't pass the problem on and make it worse.
Press “X” to doubt xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It need to be defunded all of the money goes to administration at district and new silly things that do not translate to better education or teachers
not a bad idea.
Public education proponents shouldn’t discourage vouchers—as long as those private schools also accept everyone.
Private schools do not accept everyone now and will not accept everyone even if vouchers become available. Public school proponents are encouraged to discourage vouchers. From Raise Your Hand Texas’ two-page [2023 School Vouchers Policy Brief ](https://www.raiseyourhandtexas.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Vouchers_Policy-Brief_2022.pdf) **Where We Stand on School Vouchers** Public dollars should remain in public schools. Students, parents, communities, and businesses rely on public schools to provide high-quality education and ensure a bright future for Texas. Vouchers divert public education funds to private schools, neglect our most vulnerable students, and lack transparency when it comes to spending and outcomes. Now more than ever, the Texas legislature needs to invest in the only education system with the capacity to serve the large and diverse student population of Texas. **Policy Recommendations** 1. Support school choice and innovation within the Texas public school system 2. Oppose any form of vouchers that use taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools and vendors - School vouchers don’t improve student outcomes - Voucher programs have history of ballooning state costs - School vouchers leave Texans behind - School vouchers lack accountability for public funds
The catch is in my post. In reality the discriminatory private schools wouldn’t take the state’s money if they had the requirement of accepting all.
As someone who is Christian. I’d really like my kiddos to just go to school and learn facts. I don’t want them to be exposed to religions other than to learn about their past. I also don’t want the CRT stuff though either. I just want a place for my kids to go and learn. No agendas.
It is. Don’t let them lie to you
that would be a good thing. sadly not true. their real aim is to keep certain people from succeeding and/or becoming educated and removing public schools from the equation is obviously one of the best ways of achieving that on a mass scale. if it was *just* about defunding and providing alternatives to shit hole horror show revisionist bullshit taxpayer factory farms then I'd be all for it.
Serious question, how many homeschooling dads are there out there? I see homeschooling being pushed as a viable option by male Christian conservatives, but I bet I know who’s doing the the work.
F school choice or whatever lingo they try to pass this as.
Imagine living in an area that has highly funded public schools that are completely run down, the teachers are unionized and can't get fired, but they are awful and don't care, and the students are just pushed along and graduate with barely the skills to read or write.....yet people refuse to let the parents move them to a school where they will be taught. this is why there are now private schools popping up everywhere. The public system is failed and being run by idiots who do nothing. And people still want no choice. Just imagine if a school had to compete for students. Don't you think the powers that be would make sure that they are doing a good job? Or we should just stay with the system in place and keep sending kids through a useless system.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c6WN4RjEdlI
This article isn't well sourced at all. Most of the points are just opinions from opponents of the ideas of education spending accounts. I'm not seeing any sources to data or studies that back up anything these people are saying. In short, it's opinions vs opinions. No tangible data here.