Texas residents will get a sample of school choice during a Texas Tribune panel set for Thursday.
Four leaders in Texas education, including Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri, will discuss what is best for Texas students at the Tribune event, set for 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Titled “School Choice: What’s Right For Texas?” it is a free in-person event at the Tribune’s Studio 919, at 919 Congress Ave., on the sixth floor.
It will also be livestreamed at texastribune.org/events and available for on-demand viewing afterward at texastribune.org.
Along with Muri, speakers include Laura Colangelo, executive director, Texas Private Schools Association, Michelle Smith, executive director, Raise Your Hand Texas, Randan Steinhauser, national school choice director, Young Americans for Liberty, and Brian Lopez, public education reporter for The Texas Tribune.
Lopez said since pushing an agenda of parental rights last year, Gov. Greg Abbott offered a more specific idea of what he would like to see.
“… For some for top elected officials like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott, this is a priority for them. Most recently Gov. Abbott made it clear that he would want an education savings account type of program. …” Lopez said in a phone interview.
The education savings accounts would let parents use state funds for their children’s private education or for home schooling materials.
“That’s the one that’s gaining traction in the state capital in Austin,” Lopez said. “There’s one bill that would create those kind of education savings accounts by Sen. Mayes Middleton,” a Republican from Galveston.
The bill is Senate Bill 176.
“We’ll see where that goes,” Lopez said.
Republicans think they have a good shot this session to get school choice legislation over the finish line “because they believe there’s enough parental outrage, parental anger over public schools and the way they handled the COVID pandemic with masking or no masking. Some even require vaccines, which kind of was shut down in court,” Lopez said.
Then there is the debate over race, gender, books in classrooms and banning of certain LGBTQ books.
“… They’re confident, but they still have to work with the rural Republicans that have kind of been against school choice just because their schools are the only school in the area. They kind of serve as the hub for employment, so they’re (averse) to anything that might pull their kids out of their schools and lead to loss of funding and anything else down the road that could close them down,” Lopez said.
“Anytime you talk to public school advocates thinking organizations that advocate for more funding for public schools, they have that sort of abrasiveness. I don’t think anyone has said anything about destroying public education, but definitely they’re not happy that this is being considered,” Lopez said.
One of the sticking points is using taxpayer dollars to potentially fund private and religious schools while people will still have to pay their property taxes for public schools. Some parents are against the lack of accountability something like this would bring.
“When I talk to rural lawmakers, they’re kind of against it but there hasn’t been a big push or movement against this the way that school choice advocates or school choice people have been pushing it. It hasn’t been the same kind of response,” Lopez said.
He added that it will be interesting to see how the politics play out — whether people feel they’ve done enough to stop school choice.
“One of the other things from talking to lawmakers (and) political experts, there’s a big fight right now, or a big push for teacher raises,” Lopez said.
He added that there could be a swap where teachers get raises if school choice legislation passes.
“… It will be interesting to see how the negotiations go down, but it definitely does seem a little different this session. It feels like people in that circle that want more school choice policies are a little bit more confident … Gov. Abbott, since he started pushing this parental rights agenda last year, recently came out and said what kind of policy he would support, which he has kind of has never done. …,” Lopez said.
