Governor Abbott Should Be Ashamed
To the Editor:
Governor Greg Abbott should be ashamed of himself. Even if his actions regarding the school voucher issue are not illegal, they certainly are unethical and a prime example of crooked politics. Abbott totally disregarded public opinion and used the power of his office to bully and run roughshod over what the public needs and wants. His main concerns seem to be his ego, his legacy and his future political aspirations. Of course, he is probably also facing pushback from the three West Texas billionaires, donors who are obsessed with the state funding white national Christian schools. Like a spoiled brat, Abbott is using every dirty trick he can come up with to get his way.
In November, when 21 Republicans joined Democrats to block Abbott’s voucher plan, he heard loud and clear that we Texans do not want our limited funds for education to go to private school vouchers, rather than to our already underfunded public schools. This is an example of using taxpayer dollars to fund another entitlement program. Since there are few or no private schools in the many rural areas of Texas, including ours in Fayette County, vouchers would do us no good at all. Abbott stated that vouchers would “empower families to choose the best pathway for their child.” That is rubbish. Only urban well-to-do families could benefit. Private school tuition generally costs more than the $10,000+ per student that a voucher would pay, to be used on educational expenses including private school tuition, transportation, uniforms, tutoring, etc. Few middle-class families could afford to pay the difference. Besides that, academic studies of school vouchers are murky on how good they are for students.
Here are some of Abbott’s heavy-handed dirty tricks that he used to bully his opponents: (1) He spent millions of dollars from his wealthy donors to travel and meddle in our primary elections a couple weeks ago. He went to opponents’ districts and lobbied for his proponents, calling his visits “Parent Empowerment Nights.” Voters were misled by dishonest messaging and huge amounts of outside spending, and many of Abbott’s opponents were defeated.
(2) Abbott called at least four special summer sessions of Congress and said he would continue that for as long as it took for him to get his way. He told his opponents that they could choose “the easy way or the hard way.”
(3) He held the entire state hostage by refusing to sign legislation to fund much-needed programs “until after education freedom is passed.” He blocked education funding in general, as well as for teacher raises, the special education system, elimination of the STARR tests, etc. He also blocked other funding that he knows is important to the public, such as for military promotions, using that lobbying blitz as a sweetener for vouchers.
Voucher opponents have not and will not change their minds. Vouchers are not inevitable. They would unfairly defund public school districts as well as blur the separation of church and state. We still have some time. The Legislature is not scheduled to meet again until January, at which point there will likely be another vote. Someone mentioned a guy named Monty Exter, who is a lobbyist with the Association of Texas Professional Educators. I wonder if he could help. Surely there are others. Hopefully there still exist many courageous legislators who will continue to oppose the heavy-handed agendas of Abbott and his allies. If he and his affluent cohorts win, our publicschool students and teachers will lose big time. I hope and pray that does not happen.
June Helmer Fayetteville