We’re Fort Worth educators. Let us tell you how bad vouchers will be for schools | Opinion

School voucher bills in front of the Texas Legislature are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. As North Texas public school teachers, we implore you to take a closer look and ask for a sensible education budget worthy of our students.

If only 5% of students use this voucher system, that leaves 95% of students whose schools will lose money despite their fixed costs remaining the same. This means school closures, larger classes and fewer resources for the students who stay.

With more than three decades of experience among us, we’ve had a front row seat to how money wisely invested benefits students and how budget shortfalls hurt them. A well-stocked library with a librarian, a dyslexia specialist on campus, rich curricula — these things lead to happy readers and successful literacy programs. But when lawmakers withhold school funding to score political points off of one another, our students suffer, and there’s only so much we can donate out of our salaries to make up the difference. We can pay for pencils and fundraise for books rather than the kids go without, but we can’t crowdfund a new HVAC system even when our students sit shivering in unheated classrooms.

For two years, our schools have been forced to make extreme cuts because our lawmakers created a false austerity. Despite a surplus of more than $30 billion, they decided to starve the schools. The devastating impacts of a voucher program will hit school districts that have already been cut to the bone for two years — programs slashed, schools closed and buildings sold off.

The bill will create problems that can’t be patched up with an Amazon wishlist or a fall fundraiser. It won’t be your child’s teacher sending an email home asking for boxes of tissue; it will be that your child’s school might close completely. Fort Worth ISD recently announced that 25 schools are in danger of being closed or reduced after years of declining enrollment and stagnant state funding.

Gov. Greg Abbott is telling us that the legislation would empower parents by giving them the option to send their kids to private schools. If it did what he says, we would support it. If there was a magical way for Fort Worth Country Day or Trinity Valley School to accept tens of thousands of students and lower their tuition to $10,000, it would be marvelous! If the bill benefited private schools without harming public schools, that would also be wonderful.

But in reality, tuition rates are far higher than the voucher covers. One of these schools charges more than $27,000 a year for the lower school. If a family with two kids doesn’t have $54,000 a year to send them there, what is the likelihood that they will have $34,000? The voucher amount provides a generous discount for wealthy urban parents who already have their students enrolled in private schools.

Working in a public school system means that we have a high degree of accountability. Not only are we required to get the appropriate degrees and state certifications, but anyone with an internet connection can look up school ratings and see how effective we are at teaching. The superintendent we answer to can be removed, and the school board that hires the superintendent can be voted out. This is as it should be: Our work is publicly funded through taxes, and our students’ parents should be able to see test scores and grades. This allows parents to work with us and take an involved and informed role.

Private schools, put simply, do not have the same accountability. They don’t have to hire certified teachers or tell the public a single thing about their curriculum or their results. The governor talks about choice, empowerment and transparency for parents. Those are all good things, but sending public tax money to schools that aren’t accountable to the same testing standards and are managed by unelected entities hardly promotes accountability or transparency.

We have taught thousands of students from all walks of life — loud, rowdy, introverted, frustrating, brilliant — who are all primed to be the future of Fort Worth and beyond. We delight in watching your sons and daughters grow in confidence as thinkers and writers, as mathematicians, as scientists.

We implore lawmakers to say no to vouchers. Please provide our students with the resources we need so that every neighborhood school in the state is able to give all children a fair shot at the education they deserve.

This story was originally published February 22, 2025 at 5:28 AM with the headline "We’re Fort Worth educators. Let us tell you how bad vouchers will be for schools | Opinion."