If you live in Texas and believe that school choice by which state funding follows the student to the public or private education provider that best meets his or her needs is important, the current legislative session is the best opportunity we have had in decades to make this a reality. Senate Bill 8, the lead bill in the legislative session that would move Texas closer to universal freedom of school choice, is currently pending in the Texas Senate where it appears to be stuck without the necessary votes for passage. YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED. Please phone or e-mail your State Senator right away and urge him or her to support this bill and this once a generation opportunity to transform Texas public education.
For more information, go to: LibertyForTheKids.com. Thank you.
What’s the cause of delay, Jim? Who’s opposed or uncertain who else’s supposed to be right? I thought we had expected to ride through the Senate OK and have the tougher contest in the House.
Is the problem opposition in rural areas? If so, is it time to exempt rural areas altogether?
A few things are sure if vouchers become law. There will be less money for public schools and education in public schools will suffer which is the last thing we need. Further there will be a financial benefit to the families who are rich enough to send children to private schools. Folks reading the Texas Pilgrim would be in that group. The Lamar Alumni Asso has a scholarship program in which we give $2500 a year to six at risk students for college. We interviewed this week and none of these kids could have afforded to go to a private school with vouchers. It would not help them enough. Vouchers will not improve education in Texas. We can do better.
Have to disagree with David above. We have the tail wagging the dog with that argument. We can find a way to help the lower income students that will benefit them and allow for badly needed education reform as well. The main problem is we need to improve the product for all kids, and we have been talking about it for years and the NEA is a union first and interested in reform second/the highest priority is protecting the teachers! We need performance triggers in the system to get them off dead center.
Like David I support the Lamar Alumni Association & like Jim I support school choice. Those who can afford private school are also the ones who support those who cannot. I now live in rural Texas Senate District 18, where our Senator Lois Kolkhorst is leading the charge for school choice.
Jim I hate to report that my state senator, Robert Nichols, was the only republican to vote against SB 8. I suspected he was against it because he never returned my email asking him about his stance. I’ve now sent him an email to explain why he voted against it. We’ll see if he resonds.
Good. Let me know. He has been a consistent NO for quite a while.
No word from Nichols, but my representative, Trent Ashby, is a no for school choice. He actually didn’t use the word no, just touted how great public schools were and how he was committed to giving them all necessary “resources”. He never even mentioned charter schools, private schools or home schooling.
Well, public schools are not even okay because they use textbooks that are deliberately filled with untruths. The teachers’ editions further lead away from truth by the misdirection of feelings over facts.