Gov. Abbott signals new push for school choice in Texas. Can he convince the Legislature?
School choice, the idea that parents could use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to schools other than public ones, has become an increasingly hot topic since the pandemic began and some parents got a virtual look at how and what their children were taught.
Now, Gov. Greg Abbott has again voiced his support for it.
“Empowering parents means giving them the choice to send their children to any public school, charter school or private school with state funding following the student,”Abbott said Monday during a campaign event in San Antonio.
Abbott has long supported the idea of school choice, but a voucher program — which functions more like a coupon that expires annually — has gone nowhere in the Legislature.
However, it might have some traction soon. Many parents didn’t like what they saw during the pandemic. Home-schooling has exploded in Texas, going from a 3% enrollment rate in 2019 to 12.3% in the fall of 2020. Charter and private school enrollment has increased too.
Right now, there is no specific proposal for the Legislature to review, but education savings accounts are an increasingly popular option instead of straight vouchers. Generally, they work like this: Each family would have funds allotted for each child that could be applied to a range of education needs: private school tuition, books for home-schooled students, tutoring and more. The funds would roll over annually.
In Arizona, microschools — small groups of students who meet for school and whose parents pay for a teacher, guide, or tutor to instruct them — have taken off since the state implemented education savings accounts in 2011. These offer students and parents the best of both worlds: a small setting without the cost of private school tuition. The tutors or guides, who are often former teachers, receive great pay and flexibility. Students’ academic scores have soared.
The biggest criticism of this program is that the accounts would drain funding from public schools.
“This is perhaps the most common myth about school choice,” Jason Bedrick, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. told me. “The reality is that the research overwhelmingly shows that private school choice policies lead to improvements in the district school system. When families have multiple options, district schools need to improve their performance to keep families happy (emphasis his).”
As for funding, this, too, has been documented in states like Arizona, that have already implemented education savings accounts. “In the five states with the most robust private choice options, there was an increase in average per-pupil funding over the last two decades, even after adjusting for inflation,” Bedrick said.
Abbott addressed this concern Monday as well. He said adopting such a plan “does not mean that public schools will not be fully funded — whether they are urban, rural, suburban.”
The idea that giving parents control over money can only hurt public schools is a narrow view.
Randan Steinhauser, Texas advisor to EdChoice and a mother of four, has worked for years to spread the word about education savings accounts across Texas. She too has seen an uptick in interest since the pandemic.
“It is an encouragement that Governor Abbott is coming out strong on this issue once again,” she said. “The tide has shifted to where parents are more empowered to seek alternatives to schools in order to find the best situation for their child.”
Steinhauser believes the pandemic has revealed “all these pressure points at the school right now,” that may increase awareness among parents who then could encourage lawmakers to adopt education savings accounts. She rejects the idea that education savings accounts will cause a mass exodus of kids from public schools or a major decrease in funding. However, she’s firm that the education system statewide must change.
“Education should not be a job protection system for teachers or teachers unions. The dollars should follow the child,” Steinhauser said.
Bedrick noted that education is one of the “few services … assigned to you based on where you live.”
Even families using Medicaid or SNAP choose their own doctors and grocery stores. Families should have more choices for their kids’ schooling too,” he said.
That concept is key to understanding how savings accounts could help education, children and parents thrive. Slow post office deliveries challenged the free market to deliver an alternative. Now, Americans enjoy FedEx, UPS, and Amazon deliveries at the speed of life — not the speed of the government.
Education savings accounts put parents back in the driver’s seat of their child’s education experience. Allowing parents choice ensures schools, whether public, private, or micro school tutors, will compete for the privilege of teaching your child. That will bolster learning and children’s success.
Now, Abbott must get the Legislature on board.
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