Texas asking for trouble if it pours billions into unaccountable ‘school choice’ scheme | Opinion

I served 10 years in the Texas Legislature, four of those as chairman of the House Public Education Committee. I am deeply troubled by recent “school choice” legislative proposals. My concerns are many, but they all come back to the same basic principle: taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be given to individuals without adequate public oversight.

Whether you call them “school choice,” education savings accounts (ESAs) or vouchers, the proposals before the Legislature would direct tax dollars to individuals or entities with few if any safeguards to ensure the funds are spent to achieve their stated purpose: education.

A persistent narrative claims that public schools are “failing.” There are certainly examples of campuses or even entire districts that have performed poorly. However, those schools are subject to strict accountability, ranging from a state-issued grade to a complete takeover by the state. Throughout Texas, locally elected school boards oversee both the quality of what is being taught and the prudent use of tax dollars, particularly those levied on homes and business property. Do we really believe that private providers, corporate vendors and unelected boards should be trusted to spend between $3 billion and $10 billion without accountability?

While the flaws in these schemes are obvious to many of us, some state leaders are determined to advance them. At the very least, if Texas must have what I believe is bad policy, here are a few ideas to make it less bad.

First, most states that have started ESAs have allowed students already in private schools to receive the funds. In Texas, that would mean handing over about $3 billion to families already able to send their kids to elite and often expensive private schools. Such a giveaway hardly seems conservative.

If the objective is to allow students to leave “failing schools,” legislators should limit the funds to students attending schools that receive a grade of D or F in the state accountability system.

Second, we often hear that the funds would help low-income parents choose better schools. If that is part of the objective, Texas should require applicants to show financial need, just as we require proof of need for programs related to housing, nutrition and health.

Third, Texas has one of the most robust testing and accountability systems ever devised. For the billions of dollars that an ESA program would cost, taxpayers should get accountability. The state should require every student receiving funds to participate in the state testing system, and private providers should document how students using publicly funded vouchers are performing. Simply feeling good about student achievement isn’t the same as actually being measured on a meaningful test system.

Fourth, there has been a lot of recent discussion about what schools teach. An elected panel, the State Board of Education, provides broad guidance for what must be taught in public schools. While the public might be comfortable with private schools oriented toward mainstream beliefs, are we comfortable with schools dedicated to teaching communism, socialism or offensive subject material? Accountability isn’t just about test scores; it is also about community agreement on what our future citizens are taught.

Fifth, a few billion unsupervised dollars is more than enough to attract a lot of corruption. We must be certain that participating private schools are rigorously accredited and that robust taxpayer protections are in place. Quickly started “microcampuses” cannot be allowed to siphon funding for feel-good programs that deliver substandard results.

These are just some of my concerns. I hope the Texas Legislature looks carefully at the ESA programs around the country. Louisiana has been a disaster. Indiana and Illinois have had longstanding ESA type programs. Both have seen damage to the public schools and minimal success for recipients of public dollars. In Arizona, the recently created ESA program already has the Legislature scrambling to curtail waste and abuse.

If Texas insists on going down this troubling path, I hope there is public outcry to demand conservative restraints that provide transparent accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars that Texas is about to give away.