Proponents of school voucher schemes have a number of reasons to cheer these days, from a Supreme Court ruling ensuring that they can be used at religious schools, to growing programs in states such as Florida, Arizona and — if Gov. Greg Abbott has his way — Texas.
We are not among those cheering.
Vouchers have long been framed as a matter of educational freedom and parental rights — but that misses their obvious downsides: A near-certain raid on public school funding and the fact that tax dollars spent on private schools likely won’t come with the accountability that lawmakers have had the good sense to attach to public spending.
None of that stopped Abbott at a May rally in San Antonio from promising to put vouchers on the table next legislative session. “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.
Abbott has since promised he’d fund a voucher program without taking away from public schools, but given that school funding is largely based on average daily attendance figures, using tax dollars to encourage parents to send children to private schools seems likely to leave public schools short-changed.
Vouchers is an old favorite for Abbott and the Texas GOP. They often promote it as a matter of parental choice and equity, a modern-day civil rights struggle. Legislative priority number 10 of 15 for the Republican Party of Texas: parental rights and educational freedom.
We’re unconvinced, however. For all their touted benefits, what vouchers fundamentally do is undermine public schools that anchor communities and provide guaranteed access to children of all backgrounds. In a state with a recent record on public school funding that has been shaky at best, vouchers are not what our students need. Texas’ public school teachers are underpaid, especially in Houston ISD, and teacher retirement benefits are obscenely low — two areas where any extra dollars Abbott has in mind for education should be spent first.
Vouchers have other problems, too.
For one, their tenuous connection to advancing educational outcomes. Supporters say vouchers lead to better results, but the evidence is wanting. In a 2017 paper from the National Bureau of Economics Research, scholars reviewing empirical studies of voucher programs found that the research “does not suggest that awarding students a voucher is a systematically reliable way to improve their educational outcomes.” While there were some benefits in some cases for some groups, the researchers still concluded that “vouchers have been disappointing relative to early views on their promise.”
Then there’s the matter of accountability. Will public education dollars be subject to the same sorts of measures we rely on now to tell us whether schools are succeeding? Private schools, especially religious ones, are often set up to be free of heavy oversight by school authorities. They have every right to value their independence. But then, that’s why Texas taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to help pay their students’ tuition.
Most importantly, we believe the biggest risk in moving to a voucher system in Texas is to the public school children who don’t — or can’t afford to — take the vouchers.
For some, it’s the travel standing in the way. Even with transportation funding, those journeys can be onerous and impractical for many students, particularly rural ones. For others, it’s the dollar amount that matters most. Would vouchers be useful at exclusive schools, such as Awty International with its $31,140 high school tuition, or at Sen. Ted Cruz’s pick: St. John’s with its $32,540 upper school tuition. A voucher may help bridge the gap for upper-middle-class families looking to enroll in such schools, but it won’t help those whose family income puts such tuition out of reach. The beauty of public school is its goal of offering quality education to everyone, in Texas, regardless of wealth.
While proponents have tried over the years to brand school vouchers as the “civil rights issue of the 21st century,” such claims rest on suspect history.
From their introduction in the South following Brown v. Board of Education, vouchers have historically been used as a way to maintain segregation and stall integration efforts. Scholars at Columbia University and the University of Texas traced this troubled history in a 2016 article published in the Peabody Journal of Education, warning that, without careful execution, voucher schemes are unlikely to “support the greater good for African American children or society as a whole.” A review of state voucher statutes published in the same journal in 2016, meanwhile, found that few states had sufficient built-in safeguards to ensure access and protect against discrimination.
Fortunately, Abbott’s call for vouchers in Texas will face stiff, and familiar, headwinds. Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. told Chronicle reporter Edward McKinley in May that Abbott’s efforts were just another attempt to “out-Republican the other Republicans.” The Houston-area Democrat called Abbott’s remarks “more smoke than fire.”
“Every time that’s come up in the Legislature that’s been defeated, and I just don’t see a way clear for it now,” Dutton said.
The last vote on vouchers came in 2021, when the House voted a bill down 115-29.
Perhaps Abbott sees voucher expansions elsewhere as a challenge to his conservative credentials as he mulls a higher profile nationally. But if so, he’s gambling with the future of children all over Texas.
Where student needs aren’t being met, further pillaging public schools is not the answer. If Abbott and Texas Republicans are looking for suggestions, recent polling suggests a safer, smarter answer: 80% of respondents supported more public school funding for higher teacher pay and smaller class sizes.
Where is that on Abbott’s or his party’s legislative priorities list?
Houston Chronicle
