If Texas School Vouchers Passes Public Schools Are In Trouble
Hello SAISD Parents,
This week, the 88th Legislation has made school vouchers a priority due to SB 176. Today I would like to give our parents some basic information on the process and its adverse effects on our public schools. Texas ranks 43 in the nation regarding funding in our schools. School vouchers are a topic that Texas has wanted to pass for years, but each time it failed, our politicians are pushing this agenda once again. When I asked who was behind the curtain trying to push for private school vouchers, I was told it was rich people from other states. I find this to be upsetting. How can another state tell us what’s best for our children here in Texas? First, let me give you a reveal of the four people that testified in 2017 to the Educational Senate committee in Texas. Let’s begin with the Koch brothers, who worked with our former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, Betsy DeVos. Then there’s Adam Peshek, who works with the Stand Together Trust, which is in Virginia, and there’s Lindsay Burke, who runs the Heritage Foundation, which is in D.C. These billionaires have been allowed to start educational foundations and push their ideology of what our children should learn in schools. The idea that an infestation of billionaires is trying to say that “private school vouchers” would help our children is hard to believe.
These people have never sent their children to a public school, nor have they ever walked through the doors of any of those schools. Their web pages downgrade our Public Schools to make parents believe that sending their child to a private school would be better. There is no research that states that children attending a private school do better than those attending their local public schools. Parents know that if SB 176 gets passed, not all private schools may accept your children, and they don’t provide for our special needs children either. If you have a concern or issue, there is no local board to file a complaint nor any help to resolve any problems, and I understand that it can be a hassle at our public schools, but at least there’s a system that ensures that those in charge are accountable.
The other issue is that Texas was short about 43,000 teachers as of last school year. This makes me wonder if these billionaires have teachers that they will bring with them to teach at their private schools. Our politicians should be concentrating on the extra amount of surplus money that we have and how we can help our public schools and teachers and students. If this bill passes and our state allows private school vouchers, we may see many new private schools all over Texas. This will also create a system that would cause our public schools to lose funding because the way it works is when a student leaves any school, the funding goes with them. Yet, the one thing that stays the same is how much it costs to run that public school, which could cause us to lose extracurricular activities and many other things.
Let’s ensure we keep funding for all our schools within our community.
Parents if you have any concerns or questions, please email me at lena.lopez@saobserver.com.
