State leaders may be reluctant to tackle school finance in next year's legislative session because of a major lawsuit. That leaves room for legislators to fight over school vouchers, a controversial issue already stirring fierce debate.
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Comments (17)
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
We don't need "competition" in public schools. We need to adequately fund the existing public schools. Where we need competition is in political leadership. The gerrymandering of districts to create safe Republican or Democratic districts has served to restrict competition between the parties. Think of how much better our state would be if the parties actually had to compete for votes based upon ideas and prudent public policies, rather than appeals to paranoid and racist fears, such as the U.N. taking over our golf courses. Ideally, politicians would fear a challenge from the other party, rather than the extremes of their own party.
gypsy314 ne
if the State leaders fail to support school vouchers then Texans need to find leaders that will. Vouchers and cutting pensions that tax payers will not be able to afford. We all know we must pay the piper sooner or later and public pension plans must go. Besides if 401k is good enough for the tax payers why should public pension plans be offered when we all know this will be bankrupt this state sooner or later. So no more pensions plans and do away with unions and make dame sure school vouchers happen so parents can take charge of there children's future. I feel Parents and teacher can solve the issues of educating the children a dame sight better then Government.
gypsy314 ne
Liberals want to control the spending for our children's education were has that got our children? You can dump tons more money in public schools but while government and unions are part of the problem. Parents and Teachers can fix the issues without unions and government butting in. Vouchers will allow parents have a big say in there children's education. the vouchers are scary because unions and government can not screw the system any longer.
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
Gypsy, you attended private school didn't you? Too bad they didn't teach you anything. There are no teacher's unions in Texas. The Texas Teacher Retirement System is adequately funded and it will cost billions of dollars to move to individual retirement accounts and result in a far less adequate and secure retirement for teachers than the current system. Also, remember that teachers do not receive Social Security, which supplements most people with 401k plans. TRS is the ONLY source or retirement income for many.
Proud Texan
Hans, don't waste your breath trying to educate gypsy314. If you look at gypsy's posts, they are consistently illiterate and hard to follow due to typos, grammatical errors, not to mention factual inaccuracies. Gypsy doesn't let facts get in the way
TrueTexas
It is incredible that Democrats and liberals are against school vouchers and yet try to set themselves up as caring about the poor and “fairness”. School vouchers give lower income families the same opportunity that high income families have; to send their child to a school of any choice!
I guess their problem is that it gives parents the ability to control their child’s education instead big centralized government making decisions for everybody.
Proud Texan
True Texas - your argument only works if 1) the voucher includes transportation and 2) if the voucher covers the whole amount of tuition. It might surprise you to know that not all families own a car or have the discretionary income to pay above and beyond the voucher amount.
Bob Hammond
TrueTexas,
Vouchers will be a discount for wealthy folks who are currently paying full-price private school tuition. Poor kids won't get in the doors of the private schools because the voucher won't cover the whole tuition bill, and they can't cover the gap. You are promoting welfare for the rich. And where will the $$ come from? Siphoned from the funding for the public schools, where the poor kids will STILL BE.
Steal from the poor, give to the rich.
Chris Frandsen
Thank you for keeping this issue front and center. The Republican agenda across the United States is to push vouchers and charter schools. We heard this at their convention and we are hearing it at the hearings you have covered here. There can be no doubt that if there are no surprises in the upcoming election that voucher bills will be pushed hard in the next legislative session. I am running for office because I believe that there is a concerted effort to destroy public education in Texas and across the United States and because I agree with the founding fathers of both the Nation and the State that public education is essential for the well being of our democratic form of government.
Our present system of funding public education is flawed as proven by the current court cases however vouchers will do nothing but exacerbate the funding problems for school districts across the state and there is no one who will credibly argue otherwise.
So how does one justify vouchers? I had a long talk with a young father who wanted vouchers for his children. His attitude was that he was paying taxes for his children's education and he should be able to get that money back so he could send them to the school of his choice. It is this belief that he is paying taxes for a service for his children that is the heart of the problem. School property taxes are paid by all property owners whether or not they have children. It is not a fee for services to be rendered. It is a tax that we levee on ourselves through our elected representatives and in some cases our own direct ballot box actions. That tax is to meet a civic responsibility to the future of our state, to ensure that future voting citizens are educated, that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to earn a good living and not become a burden on society and that these educated children will become an asset for our community to bring wealth and economic growth. This is not a fee I pay for the direct education of my children or my grandchildren. It is a tax I happily pay(well that might be going too far) so that all the children of our community will get a good education, not just some of them.
If elected I will do everything in my power to stop voucher bills in their tracks.
Chris Frandsen
Samdavis
Sadly gypsy is one case where the public system failed. Of course staying in school after the sixth grade is always a plus.
Texas RMS
I live in a small rural community. Let's suppose we have a dissatisfied parent. He wants his child to go to the district 20 miles down the road. His family only has one car, and his child has to ride the bus to school. So that's a problem since I'm supposing the new district isn't going to send a bus out of their attendance zone. Let's add a little more to that scenario. His child is special needs and requires lots of extra services. Is the new district required to accept that child? Also, because of family finances, the child is also on free lunch. Now, be honest. Is new district going to open their arms to this child? Is the state going to cut a check for the absolute cost of educating this child? Or how about the small private school down the road? Oh yeah, they don't even take children with any sort of issues. Nor are they required to participate in state testing, follow mandates, etc.
So let's leave local districts with all the disabled and economically disadvantaged children. Sounds perfectly American, doesn't it? As long as we take care of the rich, smart kids this country will continue to be a shining light to the rest of the world. And Texas can lead the way.
donald baker
Government schools in Texas have failed and throwing more and more money at a system of educational malpractice is nuts. Our schools have failed because they are a monopoly. True competition that a voucher system would create will improve our schools. Those who oppose school choice also oppose adequate education for our children, they are only supportive of a failed government monopoly.
Matt Prewett
Thanks for this good information! As part of full disclosure, I think it's important to point out that Louis Malfaro of "Coalition for Public Schools" is the secretary-treasurer and past-president of the Texas AFT - one of the larger teacher unions in Texas (Texas AFT). They are the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. His bio is here: http://www.aft.org/about/leadership/vp_bios/malfaro_bio.cfm
Texas RMS
Maybe our Legislators should read the Constitution.
THE TEXAS CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 7. EDUCATION
Sec. 1. SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.
GS Crispus
@ Donald Baker
Do you retreat from arguments, or do you just recycle talking points? Competition like you suggest does not work very well when it comes to public goods.
Secondly, when you remove schools with 10% poverty from international tests such as PISA, the United States blows away even countries such as Finland.
How does splitting funding to more schools make low performing schools better? How does competition, that will create a need to add in marketing and other non educational costs, and weaken efficiencies public schools gain from economies of scales magically make our schools better?
Let me suggest that you know nothing about economics, or how a free market actually works. Its not a religion.
Hal Roberts
All public schools ever ask for is a level playing field...of course legislators will not allow that to happen...(look at school finance)...but if the playing field is level, bring it on!
Jaxon Heath
Where's the research that Patrick uses to state that public schools are failing? Is he talking about the TAKS or STAAR? First, those grade on the "lowest common denominator." How would Patrick like his results based on the worst performer? Second, hasn't it been shown numerous times that those who formulated the Texas testing system were really pawns of Pearson Testing? And whose kids didn't even attend public school?