GRAYSON COUNTY, Texas (KXII) – The odds are stacked in Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s favor for the passing of school vouchers. Grayson county school officials share their concerns about them passing at the Texas house level.
Grayson County’s House Representative, Shelley Luther, shared in a statement to News 12 why she will vote yes:
“As a former public school teacher with 13 years of experience in public schools, I strongly believe in supporting both school choice and ensuring that our public education system is fully funded, especially at the classroom level. Every child deserves access to a quality education, whether that’s through traditional public, charter, private or home schools. However, we must also make sure that our teachers are equipped with the resources they need to succeed, and that means directing a greater percentage of our funding into classrooms. Teachers are the backbone of our education system, and it’s crucial that we prioritize both flexibility in educational options and adequate support for our educators to ensure every student can thrive.”
Senate Bill 2, would create “education savings accounts” or ESA’s that would allow families to use taxpayer dollars to fund a child’s education at an accredited private school.
Dr. Henry Scott, former Denison ISD Superintendent, says school vouchers are altogether a bad idea because he doesn’t think private schools will be held accountable with standardized testing. He adds that many private schools are expensive.
“Most of them are very high dollar, $20,000 plus the $10,000 voucher will not cover the tuition for those schools but it will be a subsidy for parents with wealth, and that in itself is an issue,” said Scott.
Collinsville ISD Superintendent, Matthew Davenport, says most private schools don’t offer what public districts can such as; free transportation, free lunch at no cost to students, and services to those in need of special education, because they don’t take public tax dollars.
Davenport says the ESA’s aren’t conservative and doesn’t understand why anyone arguing that they are would say so.
“Not even a little bit,” said Davenport. “It creates another branch of government, 42 new government employees and it’s ear-marked at 1 billion dollars. Over the five years it’s close to 11 billion dollars that it’s going to spend in taxpayer money. Me being a conservative, a lot of people in my chair would say ‘give that billion dollars to the school’, but I’m saying give that back to the taxpayers.”
Scott urges Texans to pay close attention to the terminology in use in the bill, with phrases such as “School Choice” and “Money following the child”. Does money following a child to a private school help predominantly public, rural areas?
“It’s kind of like me wanting to join the country club, but I don’t want to use the state parks,” said Scott. “Give me a little stipend where it’ll help me pay the dues in the country club. It’s the same concept.”
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