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Texas BlogWire

Thousands rally in Austin for private school vouchers

by: Sam Jones

Thu Feb 08, 2007 at 06:18 AM CST


Yesterday, thousands gathered at the Capitol to rally support for State-funded private school vouchers.  Last month, Representative Frank Corte Jr. filed a bill that would make vouchers available to students that meet a list of eligibility requirements in the 6 largest TX school districts.  State Senator Kyle Janek (R-Houston) is expected to soon file to create a voucher program that would extend to the whole state.

The Dallas Morning News Reports:

Gripping signs in English and Spanish, thousands of people from across Texas descended on the state Capitol on Wednesday to rally for a new law to provide public money for students to attend private schools.

Several private school parents said they need public funding so they don't have to skimp on other things to cover education costs. Public school parents at the rally said vouchers could help their children bail out of bad schools and transfer to a private school.

"Our income is not enough to cover the costs of private school," said Dallas resident Ezequiel Cortez, who has three children. "But we pay the taxes. It's our money. We have to have the choice."

The Statesman shares the frustration of a man who has donated tens of millions to San Antonio private school programs and is fed up with the state's lack of a voucher system;

James Leininger, who has spent millions of dollars on Texas political campaigns, said Tuesday that the 2,000 students in the private school voucher programs he personally bankrolls will be "out on the street" if the Legislature does not approve a publicly funded voucher plan this year.

The San Antonio physician and businessman said his 10-year, $50 million commitment to fund a program for students in San Antonio's Edgewood school district is set to expire next year.

"If the Legislature doesn't act, those kids are going to be out on the street," he said.

In response, Kathy Miller of the anti-voucher Texas Freedom Network said: "Private schools may be willing to put those kids out on the street, but the great thing about our neighborhood public schools is that they would never do that."

Yes indeed; those poor, poor children.  I know it must be terrifying for some to think of sending their kids through the public school system.  With the failing test scores, prevailing presence of drugs and gangs, and the underpaid teacher force, it's a wonder that any of us went to public school at all... 

I'm sure many teacher's of Texas and the poor saps like myself who endured the public school system stare in disbelief at the screen when we come across these stories.  When so many of our children are being 'left behind' each year, it is shameful for privately funded and operated educational institutions to seek to steal funds that should be used for our school system.  No matter how painfully obvious I may think it to be, there is no reason to provide state funding for private schooling.  Because private means just that: independent, non-state, non-public.  Put simply; if state benefits are desired, state schools should be attended.  This rally and the Statesman article hit me deep, as thousands of angry protesters demanded financial provisions to keep their kids out of that awful system that helped to make me who I am today.

Tags: Texas Politics, (All Tags)
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If you want you child in a private school (5.00 / 1)
then you should be willing to pay for it and not ask the state to take funding away from an already over burdened funding system to pay for a private school.  Many of these private schools are still remnants of the private schools that sprang up when desegregation started in the south and do not deserve and funding as they help further the cause of hatred and bigotry in the state.  Religious schools should NEVER get state funding as there is suppose to be a sepration of church and state even in Texas. 

I attended public school and am damn proud of it!!!  I learned not only in the classroom but the entire social contact with different people af all races and classes to deal with the real world in a better way.

John Edwards '08,Left Of The Rainbow

Thank you! (0.00 / 0)
Im glad someone gets it...

[ Parent ]
If you don't like your public school, just move! (0.00 / 0)
Poor people complain about being "stuck" in a bad public school, but there's a simple solution:

  (1) Sell your house / break your lease,

  (2) Buy/rent a new house / apartment, and

  (3) hire a moving company or pack up yourself and move!

It's not like it's that hard to find another school!  Unless, of course, you can't afford to just pack up and move...

Seriously, though - at least some of the "poor, poor children" who go back into the public school system will be going to schools that are worse than the private school they are now attending. 

Can someone explain to me why, if the amount of tax money that would have paid for the kids' government-run school was instead applied to a privately-run school - meaning the cost per child is the same - why vouchers shouldn't pay for it?

[ Parent ]
Vouchers amount to free taxes (0.00 / 0)
Obtaining private school vouchers amounts to not paying your taxes. If you want your kids to go to private school, then great. Send them there. If not, you're not going to get a rebate from the government.

If vouchers pass, I think any single person without children that pays property taxes should be exempt from paying the school tax. Single people do not have children, so why pay for someone elses children to go to school? As you can see, this statement is silly. Just like school vouchers.

Endorsed by Halloween marshmallow peeps

Bravo (0.00 / 0)
"If the Legislature doesn't act, those kids are going to be out on the street," he said.

Oh, the horrors!  They'll be on the street where terrible things could happen to them!  Like having to attend public schools!  In Texas!

I'm glad to find others voicing what we've all been thinking:

"You want me to pay for your child to attend a private school?  Huh?"

[ Parent ]
No taxes for private schools (0.00 / 0)
Let these people move their kid to another public school that's doing well but tax money should absolutely not go towards sending their kids to private schools.

Public schools won't be fixed if the money is siphoned off to private schools, who btw, don't have all the mandates and state oversight that public schools must endure.

As for Leninger, if he thinks drugs aren't in private schools, I know of a bridge in Brooklyn...

No way there were thousands (0.00 / 0)
I was at the Capitol yesterday during their rally.  Even counting all the kids in Catholic school uniforms who were sneaking off to the Capitol Grill because John Stossel was so boring, the count was probably 700 or 800.  No mas. 

So with all this complaining about vouchers.... (0.00 / 0)
why is the government funding art? Hurricane Katrina Refugees?

www.completethewar.com
Those Katrina refugees (0.00 / 0)
are now in Texas.  Texas is constitutionally requried to provide them with an education.  Unlike private schools, our state doesn't selectively choose who it is that they will educate.

[ Parent ]
With vouchers, the state could require privately-run schools not to "selectively educate"... (0.00 / 0)
...or they wouldn't get the voucher funding.

Then our new neighbors would be free to attend any school, instead of just the public school they're zoned to attend and pay for.

[ Parent ]
You've hit the nail on the head. (0.00 / 0)
Voucher advocates REFUSE to play by the same rules the public school must play by. They do NOT want to have to take all comers, they do NOT want to have to provide transportation, they do NOT want to have TAKS tests or other accountability measures, they do NOT want to have a requirement for trained and certified teachers. 

Vouchers are supposed to provide competition for public education, but voucher advocates do not want to be on a level playing field. 

[ Parent ]
But my point is... (1.00 / 3)
why are we giving them Visa cards to go spend in strip clubs, attorneys' offices (i.e. divorce), jewelry stores, etc., yet complaining about a voucher that would give a low income child the chance to actually learn in a more disciplined, bureaucracy free setting if the parents would like that route available to them?  Talk about mixed priorities.

www.completethewar.com
[ Parent ]
Giveaways (0.00 / 0)
Ok we need to put you in time out.

First of all, people who lost their homes and lives in Katrina have nothing to do with public education.

The people advocating for vouchers are neither low income or living in poverty. They're rich McMansion parents who think they do not have to pay taxes to keep up the public school system. They would like to be refunded for sending their children to private schools.

Like I said before, if we allow people to not pay their fair share of taxes to keep up public education because they want to go to a cute Montesorri somewhere in the burbs, then we may as well stop funding public education altogether. Maybe we can have Exxon run our schools since privatizing everything seems to be the solution proposed.

Endorsed by Halloween marshmallow peeps

[ Parent ]
Re: Giveaways (0.00 / 0)
I, too, was scratching my head at the sidebar into Katrina refugees.  For the record, the VISA cards were provided by FEMA and NGOs like the Red Cross.  They were not provided by the State of Texas.

In addition to John's points and the discussion of suburban parents, there are two other special interest groups behind the voucher push- 1) parents who want to send their children to "faith-based" private schools and 2) parents who don't want their children to attend urban public schools in the post Brown v. Board of Education world.

In the case of faith-based private schools, the argument of these parents is that they want to send their children to schools that are sponsored by their churches.  They want the taxpayers of Texas to provide financial assistance to subsidize the tuition required to attend these schools.  As John said, their argument is that they shouldn't have to pay property taxes to support public education because they have chosen to send their children to religious schools.  They want a refund of their property taxes in the form of a voucher to reduce the cost of their private school tuition.  It also subsidizes their church with public monies.

The other group has never gotten over the idea that public schools are for all the children of Texas.  They want to send their children to private schools because they believe that schools that have brown and black children must be inferior.

[ Parent ]
If only my public school would meet my child's needs. (5.00 / 1)
A child with a LD not so severe to qualify for Special Ed. is out of luck in the public schools. High IQ keeps my child out of Special Ed. Her 'accomodation' gives her an automatic 50 in every class - even if she can't produce one iota of work. Her LD exempts her from parts of the TAKS that she is sure to fail. "No child left behind" means "social promotion" for her. I've moved twice and it's the same in both ISDs. No funding = touch luck, kid. Private school vouchers look pretty good to me now. If the public school won't teach my child, what else can I do?

This is a worthy exception (0.00 / 0)


[ Parent ]
Unfortunately, private school won't help (0.00 / 0)
For a child with learning disabilities, your best bet is private tutoring or assistance programs like Sylvan. 

The atmosphere in many private schools is very competitive.  There have been some recent studies looking at the competitiveness of some of the more elite private schools and the effects of the pressure to succeed.  These schools are not focused on one-on-one education- the focus is either on religous instruction or college prep.

[ Parent ]
My argument against vouchers (0.00 / 0)
Ok, here is the problem with the voucher supporters idea of a "free market" for schools.  It doesn't work because of transportation, especially in small towns.  Their is only a limited number of schools that an area can support.  Let's say you have a 80% small Catholic town and you have vouchers, the public school is going to have very few kids and therefore won't be as good as the bigger Catholic school.  Therefore, to get the best education, you will basically force students to go to religious schools with no government oversight.  Or in the case of a city, transporting kids to all their desired schools would be utterly inefficient and a mess.  Their is value to most kids in an area going to the same school, because it is most efficient and ensures the most social interaction.  You can also kids get to go to a school that is the closest possible that the government has oversight over so we can be sure it is serving their needs.  What we really need is to improve public education, and I think what is really needed is to double the money paying for teachers, and split the new money between getting more to reduce class sizes and to pay teachers more.  The better we pay teachers the better teachers we will attract.

Not to mention new money that the legislature would have to come up with to pay for vouchers

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."- James A. Baldwin

Leininger (0.00 / 0)
Leininger is a stone cold nut case.


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