Texas Legislature: Battle over education policy continues
Texas legislature and school choice
We continue to look at the battle over education policy in the Texas legislature. Gov. Abbott claimed he has the votes to pass his school choice voucher plan in this new session after it failed two years ago. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has a look at both sides of this continuous issue.
AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. Greg Abbott says he has the votes to pass his school choice plan in this new legislative session, after it failed two years ago.
Though bill details have not yet been released this time around, that plan is expected to be a contentious issue in the Texas Legislature in the coming weeks.
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What is a school voucher?
School districts talk about legislature funding
A lot of school districts are hoping to see lawmakers take action to increase school funding. Last week, 7 On Your Side looked at the impact of that situation at Austin ISD. Now, John Krinjak takes a look at two more districts dealing with the lack of state funding
The backstory:
Education savings accounts, often called vouchers, allow families who opt out of public school to instead use tax dollars to pay for private school.
"We don't know the details yet. So maybe around $10,000 per child," said Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association.
Some supporters, like Colangelo, say they'd like to see income caps, so the money helps students who need it most.
"That's one of the four priorities of the bill, that makes sure that the families that can't access private schools now are the ones that get access to this program," said Colangelo.
What are the critics saying?
What they're saying:
Critics like Dax Gonzalez of the Texas Association of School Boards worry that won't happen.
"What we've seen in other states is that those kids that need it the most generally are not serviced by vouchers in the same way as other students, that mostly it's families that are already in the private school system that are taking advantage of that," said Gonzalez.
Democrats and some rural Republicans have also raised concerns that vouchers will divert money from public schools. It comes at a time when many districts are in major deficits, due in large part to the legislature failing to pass a public school funding measure last session that was tied to school choice.
"Whenever you create a third funding stream for education purposes," said Gonzalez. "That's money that otherwise could go to support our Texas public school students. I believe that any diversion of public education funds will, in the end, lead to worse outcomes for public school students."
But proponents insist that hasn't been the case elsewhere.
"There are 32 other states in the country that have a private school choice program, and it has shown across the board that it does not harm public schools," said Colangelo.
Dig deeper:
Then there's the question of transparency and accountability for private schools that would receive state money.
"In the bill, hopefully we'll see there will be accountability measures, that private schools will have to be accredited, which is a very robust, robust process that makes sure that the school is meeting and exceeding the standards of public schools," said Colangelo.
"Well, what we saw last session was a bill that really didn't have a lot of accountability and transparency of taxpayer dollars. So when we were looking at voucher programs, there were plans that didn't really account for how dollars would be spent and for how taxpayers could go and see how those dollars are being spent," said Gonzalez.
What's next:
Many at the Capitol expect that, unlike last session, vouchers and public school funding will be presented as separate bills this time around.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's John Krinkak