On School Vouchers
To the editor:
Texans, we have a BIG problem. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have been bought and paid for by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, two West Texas oil-rich billionaire donors, and Jeff Yass, TikTok investor, among others. What citizens want and need are being disregarded. The issue is School Vouchers. These wealthy bullies are demanding the state funding of white national “Christian” schools, at the expense of our public schools. Our elected state officials are catering to the demands of the big-bucks donors, to the exclusion of the wishes of the public who elected them. They don’t seem to care about the required Constitutional separation of church and state. If this overt, offensive and indefensible violation of the Texas Constitution comes to pass, perhaps the State Supreme Court should become involved..
Texas Constitution’s Article 7, Section 1 requires the Legislature to “establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.” Article 3, Section 52 generally prohibits the expenditure of public funds for a private purpose.
The back story on this issue is significant. Abbott has been trying for years to please his big-bully donors by using school vouchers to fund their white national “Christian” schools and make public schools less desirable and attractive. His Buckley Bill had been voted down many times already. In November 2023, 21 Republican legislators 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 schools and away from our already underfunded public schools. But Abbott didn’t care what we average citizens wanted. He pulled one of his heavy-handed dirty tricks to bully his opponents. Abbott spent many millions of dollars from his wealthy donors to travel and meddle in primary elections in May.
First he figured out which legislators were opposing his voucher plan. Then he and his entourage traveled to his 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. As a result, many of Abbott’s opponents were defeated in the primaries. Now Abbott claims he has secured enough votes to win the issue (The Buckley Bill) when the 88th legislature meets next time in January 2025.
Another of Abbott’s dirty tricks to pressure legislators was calling four additional summer sessions of Congress, saying he would continue that for as long as it took to get his way. He told his opponents that they could choose “the easy way or the hard way.” He just refuses to accept the fact that most Texans don’t want school vouchers.
The Buckley Bill is being pushed down our throats, and we must not allow that to happen. It is wrong on so many different levels. It would give to parents something like $10,400 per student (which is now allocated to public school districts) to pay tuition for their child at a religious or any other private school, maybe even home schooling. The big problem is that this funnels money away from struggling public schools, who receive a base amount from the state of only $5,140 per student. This amount has not increased since 2019. Do the math.
If the School Voucher bill does pass, the funding needs to come from some place other than public school funds. Abbott is holding hostage about $4.4 billion in surplus funding, refusing to fund public education “until education freedom is passed.” Some of that money could be used to fund school vouchers. As these voucher-pushers seem to have intended, our public schools are suffering mightily now. A recent survey concluded that out of 313 school districts across the state, nearly 80% reported deficit budgets or a lack of resources as one of their top challenges. They are having to make difficult decisions about what necessary things need to be cut to meet their budgets.
In January, when the next Legislature reconvenes, Governor Greg Abbott seems sure that he has bullied enough legislators in the March Primaries to be able to pass his dreaded School Voucher Bill. The only people this curriculum seems intended to help are the urban, white Christian nationalists to whom our state leaders seem ever eager to kowtow. They are trying to turn Texas into a model of theocratic indoctrination. School vouchers would not help rural and small-town, middle- and low- income families to educate their children.
A good education benefits our children, our society, our businesses and our standard of living. Public schools are the beating hearts of communities.
In Biden’s “dropping out” speech, he said, “The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do.” Well, that’s not true in this case. Abbott has steam-rolled right over what the general public needs and wants in its schools. If he succeeds, the face of public education will be changed forever, at the expense of 5.4 million public school kids in the state of Texas.
June Helmer Fayetteville