By Mike Norman
mnorman@star-telegram.com
You'd think that with all their experience in state government, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would back causes that have sounder constitutional footing than private school vouchers.
You'd think they and other state leaders on the rolling-again voucher bandwagon, with all the emphasis they otherwise place on smaller government and a smaller state budget, wouldn't at the same time push government red tape and public financing for private schools, parochial schools, virtual schools and home schools.
But you might expect, given all the times they've said free-market principles and as little regulation as possible allow businesses the freedom to innovate and improve, they'd push the same idea for schools. This time you'd be right.
The argument is that public school principals and other administrators, for fear of losing students and the funding that comes with them, would do things like raising their hiring standards for teachers and would make hard decisions about firing ineffective teachers.
Research dating back at least a decade says there is some truth to that.
Perry and Dewhurst, the two most powerful people in state government today, say they'd like to see a "school choice" bill passed in next year's legislative session. The idea has been trotted around the legislative track in Austin many times, but it's been a few years since an all-out run.
The Texas Constitution, in place for 136 years and never amended on this point, requires the Legislature "to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools."
Not private schools, parochial schools, virtual schools or home schools, but a "system" of public schools, which the constitution says is necessary because education for all is "essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people."
We pay taxes to support this system of public schools. People who choose another method of education are free to pay for it without public help.
If Texas ever had a school choice plan, it's been pointed out before that alternative forms of education could hardly expect to receive public dollars without being held to the same accountability standards as public schools. Some of them aren't sure they want that.
The crowning argument for school choice is the one that says it would force public schools to improve.
More popular than vouchers among school choice advocates these days are plans like the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program, under which corporations receive state tax credits for donating money to nonprofits that provide private-school scholarships to low-income students.
A study by researchers at Northwestern University and published last year in
Education Next said public schools that face competition from nearby private schools showed improved in test scores after the tax credit scholarships were introduced in 2002. The change was most noticeable in elementary schools, which faced the greatest competitive threat, particularly those that also stood to lose federal funding if students left for private school. (
bit.ly/cHWcUM)
Other studies in the past decade have reached similar conclusions.
That's what you can expect to hear when the legislative debate begins in Austin next year. It could be a winning argument this time around. Everybody wants better public schools. Still, there's the problem of money.
Corporate tax breaks for scholarship funding? That would be a tough sell in a state whose leaders have moaned for years that the state treasury is so bare we can't adequately fund public schools.
Mike Norman is editorial director of the Star-Telegram / Arlington and Northeast Tarrant County. 817-390-7830Twitter: @mnorman9
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