Public schools funds flow from local government, state government and federal government to have free education. Private schools, however, rely on vouchers, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), Tax credit scholarships, private funding and even the federal government. Beginning two years ago, Governor Greg Abbott has pushed for vouchers to promote private schools, and recently Gov. Abbott has over half the house as co authors on his Senate Bill 2, which allows parents to relocate their child to a private school.
“[People] call it an education savings account, they call it a tax credit scholarship, they call it a voucher, they call it a coupon,” Senior Director of Policy at Raise Your Hand Texas (RYHT), Bob Popinski, said.
The vouchers presented by Gov. Abbott are derived from public school education funds, which are financed by tax dollars. The school vouchers would take intended public school funds and give grants to parents to move the child from public school to a private school or homeschooling, enforcing a more recent popular idea of “school choice,” or the option to choose to send a kid to private school.
“It takes public taxpayer dollars and allows any student in the state, whether you attend a private school, you’re in a home school, or attend public school, to attend a private school or receive education through a private vendor of some sort,” Popinski said.
The ability for the parent to move their child gives the option of “school choice,” providing up to $10,000 a year to choose an alternate choice in schools. However, this depletes public schools funding by taking from the typical funding and dispersing it to individuals, creating a false freedom where the money provided typically still fails to pay off entire school tuition.
“Highland Park ISD relies on the public school funding formula, which is tied to property taxes, and we rely on our parents and families and community to subsidize our district,” Principal Dr. Kevin Hunt said.
Since the Highland Park schools are public, this will create a deficit in the funds for the school locally. These funds provide money specifically for special needs programs, fine arts programs, core classes resources, teachers’ pay and other extracurricular activities provided by the school.
“So for our community, I could be wrong, but I don’t anticipate being hugely impactful,” Hunt said.
Because of the wealth in the HP community, the changes in funding are predicted to have a small impact, and one that could be offset by private fundraising, but they could still result in budgeting cuts in programs, resources or teachers salaries. The schools that would face bigger consequences are marginalized schools and underfunded schools, like Title I schools, that rely on these funds. Additionally, people who attempt to acquire the voucher may face drawbacks that can result in the disqualification of the voucher.
“So you might qualify for a voucher education savings account, but in reality, it is the private school that really gets to look at your qualifications. First, they have to have an open seat available for you. Second, you have to meet all of the tuition and fee requirements,” Popinski said. “So if you only have $10,000 and the private school is a $40,000 tuition, your family has to come up with the other $30,000. They can look at your academics and your discipline records, and if they decide you are not a fit, or they cannot provide certain special education services to you, they don’t have to accept you and you do not get to use that voucher in the end.”
These hardships will force the student’s attempt to leave public school to go badly and ultimately the student will end up back in that original public school. The people who are able to acquire and properly utilize the funding are people already in private schools, or can afford private school without the voucher. Families who cannot afford to pay for other schooling even with the vouchers would be forced to stay in the schools facing severe budgeting cuts.
“It puts some strain on the state’s budget in order to be able to afford it all, because you’re essentially paying because the majority of the people who accepted the voucher were already in a private school,” grassroots Advocate for the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), Brian Wood, said.
Other states, such as Arizona, have implemented voucher programs, but it has not been proven to be successful. The universal voucher program allows the state to pay for public school funding and students who take the voucher to leave public school as well as funding vouchers to private school students.
“Arizona passed what’s called a universal voucher program, and it’s threatening to bankrupt the state. I mean, they have essentially spent way more money on this than they have in the state’s revenue sources,” Woods said, “There have been multiple instances of highly questionable spending on things like trampolines and ski lessons using these public dollars, and in some cases, outright fraud, where a family took the money and did no schooling whatsoever.”
Families who cannot afford to pay for other schooling even with the vouchers would be forced to stay in the schools facing severe budgeting cuts. Governor Abbott encourages the school vouchers for an opportunity to give parents a choice in their child’s schooling. However, this program lacks transparency oversight and is not proven to be effective or worthy to undermine public schools.
“Parents and students and community members need to be aware of what vouchers do and don’t do right, and at the end of the day, vouchers, it’s not necessarily the parents choice. It really is the school’s choice on which students they accept,” Popinski said.
