In over 30 years of involvement with public education reform, I can’t remember a time that offers more opportunity for transformational change than this moment. The combination of overall underperformance of public education, the recalcitrance of the teachers’ unions to allow teachers to return to work during the pandemic, the direct impact of COVID itself on family structure and work and living habits, and the parents renewed and intensive involvement in their children’s education and how it is being corrupted have all converged into a perfect storm for systemic change. This phenomenon is being played out in different places and different ways across the nation, and Texas is no exception.
To take advantage of this opportunity, I am pleased to have joined a group of friends and colleagues as board members of Liberty for the Kids, a project founded and led by Kent Grusendorf, former Chairman of the Public Education Committee of the Texas Legislature and long time advocate for school choice. We hope to build grassroots and opinion leadership support for a movement that will culminate with significant legislation expanding parental school choice in all of its manifestations, both public and private, during the 2023 Texas legislative session.
In case you missed it, here is the recent press release announcing our rollout:
LIBERTY FOR THE KIDS: ONLY PARENT EMPOWERMENT AND SCHOOL CHOICE WILL IMPROVE PUBLIC EDUCATION
Austin, TX (March 29, 2022) Six Texans, among the highest profile and stalwart education advocates in the state, today announced the roll-out of Liberty For The Kids (LFTK), a single-issue, Texas nonprofit striving to “empower all parents regardless of race, wealth, or zip code, with the right to determine where and how their child can learn best.”
“Every child should have the freedom to learn where they learn best;” said Dr. Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education and former Houston ISD superintendent. “Educational funds, held in trust by the state, should follow the child to the delivery system, public or private, best suited to meet the needs of each individual child. The Texas Legislature should make this possible.” He is honorary board chair of LFTK and chair of its advisory committee.
Having worked in the trenches at the local, state, and federal levels, Dr. Paige knows “the best way to improve and save the public education system is to require schools to compete for their clients, which means giving parents the right to choose.”
The term “School Choice” is being reinvented and recharged as parents become more chagrined with their public schools and the hurdles blocking their children’s educational attainment. “LFTK is a single-issue, Texas-based C4 nonprofit dedicated to assuring that every Texas child can learn where they learn best;” said Allan Parker, a LFTK Board member, former ISD attorney, and former school-law professor. “Child centered funding is the wave of the future, where the money follows the child to the school of the parent’s choice for all students.”
“For almost half a century we have attempted to improve and reform education with top-down mandates,” said Dr. Don McAdams, LFTK vice president, former HISD board president, and author of three school governance books. “Although well-meaning, many of these directives have become a burden to teachers. And when they have worked, over time they have been undone due to political pressure from special interests.”
Kent Grusendorf, LFTK board president, former member of the State Board of Education and former chairman of the Texas House Education Committee, pushes back against the argument that public money should only go to publicly operated schools. “Your tax dollars do not belong to the schools; instead, it is your money held in trust for the education of your kids. This is why school board members are called ‘trustees’.”
“The Texas Supreme Court has made it perfectly clear, in its Edgewood IV ruling, that tax dollars held in trust for Texas students can be used for their education in any manner as determined by the legislature – public or private,” said attorney John Shields, LFTK Secretary/Treasurer, former member of the State Board of Education, and former state representative.
As Abraham Lincoln reported said: “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
According to Jim Windham, founding chairman of the Texas Institute for Education Reform and LFTK Board member; “Never before have I seen better prospects for meaningful change. The 2023 legislative session provides a unique opportunity for complying with the law and improving the state’s education system.”
LFTK Board Members
Dr. Rod Paige is Honorary Chairman of LFTK’s Board of Directors and Chairman of its Advisory Council. He served as Education Secretary under President George W. Bush, and is a former superintendent of Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas.
Kent Grusendorf serves as LFTK President. He is a former member of the Texas State Board of Education; a former chairman of the Texas House of Representatives Public Education Committee, and a former chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council Education Task Force.
Dr. Don McAdams serves as LFTK Vice President. He is a former Houston ISD school board president; founder and chairman of the Center for Reform of School Systems; a former college president, and author of three books on public school governance.
John H. Shields serves as LFTK Secretary-Treasurer. He is a former member of the Texas State Board of Education; a former member Texas House of Representatives; a former public school teacher, and a former college business law instructor currently practicing law in San Antonio.
Allan E. Parker, Jr. serves as a LFTK Board member. He is a former attorney for public school districts; a former education law professor, and current president of The Justice Foundation (a non-profit advocating for limited government, private property, and parental rights.)
Jim Windham serves as a LFTK Board member. He is a past chairman, Texas Association of Business; founder and past chairman, The Texas Lyceum; founding Director, Texas Public Policy Foundation, and founder, Texas Institute for Education Reform. He is a retired banker.
For more information, including data and performance results and to provide support, go to: LibertyForTheKids.org.
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Let me have your questions. Needless to say, we’re going to need all the help we can get, so please consider a donation. We will spend it wisely.
Best wishes for a successful roll out.
I approve !
You’ve been a champion for excellence in Texas education for many years. Your name and Dr. Paige’s name attached to this effort mean a lot to me. I’ll definitely support the cause and spread the word to friends and family. Thanks Jim.
I met with Kent and Allen earlier thanks to your referral and have strongly supported free enterprise in education since I first learned of it in a grad school class where Milton Freedman presented it in his book Capitalism and Freedom. The process should be TRUE free enterprise as with any other product with constant improvement in the efficiency of delivering it and the creative improvement of it.
You have worked long and hard on this. Keep up the good work. I think the general population finally sees the problem.
What if we just cut through the morass of programs and take all the money being provided at the federal and state level and put it into individual student endowment accounts?
The late 1970’s in the United States was a time of surprising deregulation. It was the beginning of the end for the telephone monopolies. Those inside the regulated industries, and the regulatory agencies, warned of doom and disaster if competition were allowed. The doomsayers were wrong. The free market provided solutions that were impossible to forecast. Competition and the profit motive brought out the best that humans can create.
Communications solutions today are employing far more people than the old phone monopolies, and are delivering services never dreamed of in that era. The forecasts of disastrous unemployment and system collapse if the phone monopolies were opened to competition were totally and completely wrong.
K-12 is the phone monopoly of our time.
We should create an individual educational endowment fund for each K-12 student. Student endowment funds would pay out annually for students who achieved minimum grade level knowledge, including to the parents of homeschooled students.
Providers for students who did poorly would not be paid, leaving twice the annual amount available next year to educators who could catch them up. Seriously underperforming students would accrue several years of catch-up funding, providing extra incentive for the type of personalized attention that would benefit them. Military veteran servicemen and women teaching small groups of students, developing personal relationships, can change lost kids into enthusiastic young adults.
Hallelujah! Texas is behind the curve of other states on this. I’ve heard the problem is rural legislators that don’t see private options being realistic in their districts, but with the rapid rise of private microschools (especially in churches), that’s no longer the case. Some thoughts on the best political angle to take: What if Texas had a process that allowed families to assert that their public school was teaching against their values (whether CRT or anything else), so they would be granted a voucher to go to an alternate school of their choice that matched their values? (funded by some combination of the state and their school district) That’s an angle that I think would be very popular in Texas. And instead of calling it a voucher, call it “Family Empowerment Funds”, which is great branding – who can be against empowering families??
Keep up the good fight and best of luck!
Donated!
It’s high time, Jim! There’s no remaining hope at trying to work with the system. Educrats have put their cards on the table. And it’s all about money and power. They couldn’t care less about student achievement. The data over the last decade plus are all the proof needed.
My only concern is that it’s not general advocacy that’s needed. What’s needed is a ton of resources devoted to grass tops and grass roots advocacy to press rural Republicans to find a way to support some form of choice. Without a change in that group, there will be no progress.
I hope your group is devoting much of its effort toward that end.
Good luck!