As the 2023 Texas Legislature convenes, education advocacy organization Raise Your Hand Texas is urging the public to become educated on the topic of vouchers.

Laura Yeager, whose three children attended Austin ISD schools, has been advocating on a wide range of public education issues since 2011. She said vouchers play a role in each issue.

“It’s a long game of privatizing public education. In terms of funding, Texas is 49th if you look at spending on each kid in Texas,” Yeager said. “We are underfunding our schools.”

If voucher programs are passed, Yeager said Austin-area districts would have less money and more difficulties educating children, thus making school become a less enriching experience.

“We love our public schools. We know they’re the center of our communities ... It’s what brings people together. In this divisive time, it’s brought everyone together. If we lose that element, that’s a grave danger to the state,” Yeager said.

Effects of vouchers

Vouchers are typically introduced as a way to provide additional school choice options for students in the U.S., although voucher critics believe Texas already offers a variety of options for families through the public school system, and that any sort of voucher would divert public funds away from public schools.

“The public education system here in Texas educates about 90% of our students, and we do a really good job at it,” said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy for Raise Your Hand Texas. “We offer a lot of school choice programs in the education system, not only through the charter system, which offers education to nearly 400,000 kids, but we have P-TECH programs, early college programs and magnet programs.”

With these school choice options comes accountability, Popinski said, as students are required to take the state’s assessment and follow state curriculum guidelines. Additionally, public school districts are held accountable under the state’s A-F ratings as well as its financial integrity rating system.

“We think you can have choice in our state and still hold school districts accountable for student achievement,” Popinski said. “We don’t believe vouchers can do that.”

There are currently 14 states in the U.S. with voucher programs in place, which include traditional models, business tax credits, education savings accounts, and now in the age of virtual education, there are virtual vouchers. In Texas specifically, the newest proposals are referring to bracketed voucher systems.

“A lot of these work through education savings accounts where you put it into an account for the parent, and they can take that money to any private institution or private vendor that they like, taking the money out of our public school system,” Popinski said.

The push for vouchers is not new, but there has been a stronger national push in recent years; the most recent state to adopt them is Arizona, which approved a universal voucher program in 2022.

“What you’re seeing with the program in Arizona is 80% of the kids who are enrolling in the voucher program already attended private school, which says a lot about what voucher programs can do to your state and public education system,” Popinski said.

That is also true in New Hampshire, where 89% of the students enrolled in the voucher program already attended a private school, along with Wisconsin at 75%.

“That’s what we’re pushing back against. We don’t want this just to be for students who attend private schools, we want funding for the common good for all of our 5.4 million students,” Popinski said. “We spent decades developing systems of curriculum and assessments, and to have a third parallel system along with charter schools — where no one is held accountable for those types of provisions — is troubling.”

Additionally, the cost of private school tuition in Texas averages around $11,000, and can go upwards of $20,000 at certain institutions — thousands of dollars more than a voucher of $4,000-$6,000 would pay for.

“Vouchers would end up being a bonus for someone who can afford to send their kids,” Yeager said. “It’s a little break. It really is a very, ‘I want mine and I don’t care about the rest of the people.’ If there were a good argument, they would pay enough and make sure schools would provide the same standards.”

Other legislative priorities

Yeager said legislators should shift their focus from voucher programs to funding local schools. She said if schools were adequately funded, there would be no argument for vouchers.

“It’s a danger to every one of the 5.4 million kids and their families and the communities if we go down this road of vouchers,” Yeager said. “The antidote is allowing local control and funding schools [properly] and letting them flourish.”

Popinski agreed, noting the state should continue to provide public education the basic resources it needs as the first and foremost options.

“We are in the bottom 10 when it comes to per-pupil spending, and looking at the teacher workforce we’re $7,500 behind the national average,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do on just the basic public education needs of our 5.4 million students, almost 400,000 teachers, and 250,000 additional staff members.”

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