In the One Click Survey, readers were asked which of six choices most closely described how they thought Texas lawmakers should approach education policy. We used the exact same the language as a survey sent to more than 25,000 Texas classroom teachers.
(Want to know how the teachers answered? Check out the results of the survey.)
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Here is a sample of the responses we received from our readers.
“I chose to abolish public education as it exists – as a public school teacher. The system as it currently exists cannot be changed; it has to be rooted up and recreated. It is currently running amok. Students are taught early they do not have to work hard to pass. This is negatively affecting society and the idea of American innovation and technical advancements. We are devolving as a society driven by the lack of character, ethics, and hard work being taught in public education. We are creating a class of idiots.” – Greg Reinhart
“The reason I took early retirement after 33 years is because Bill Ayers took over the education system in the U.S. in order to destroy our country and turn it into a State-Run Communist Education System like we have today.” – Eleanor Edmondson
“I believe in letting the money follow the student and not go to the bureaucratic school systems. This, in turn, will promote charter and private schools, whereas if you just start expanding Charter/Private schools, the hardworking, struggling parents would have to pay tuition as well as the outrageous ISD school taxes!” – Greg Burr
“Our public education system has devolved into the biggest failure of the American Experiment.” – Michael Bow
“I do not want tax money to pay for charter or private schools. If you want your child to go to private or charter schools, then you pay the way! No taxpayer dollars. School taxes and property taxes should be stopped for all people 65 years of age or older. Also, if you send your child to a private or charter school, then you should be exempt from paying school taxes!” – John Patterson
“Are we spending our tax dollars to educate our children or to fund indoctrinators and their union who want parents labeled as domestic terrorists? Fund the children NOT the system!” – Tara Souther
“There is nothing that says the ‘public free schools’ is the only funding or system that is allowed. Obviously, the current system is not working for anyone other than the ‘school system.’” – Steve Sullivan
“Public education should focus on reading, writing, arithmetic, add in thinking and reasoning skills; and stick to the truth in history rather than the rewritten versions being promulgated now.” – Gay Armstrong
“I know I’ll be one of the few that vote to abolish public schools, but right now, it’s like the Titanic barreling towards the iceberg! There’s no turning it around.” – Don Hu
“What should policymakers’ focus be on when it comes to education? Respect. We are educating the future of this country. Treat the profession like the future depends on it.” – Raea Davenport
“The public school system, as it exists today, was devised and implemented in socialism. Socialism fails every time it is tried. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the public school system is failing. Further, it is foolish to think we can force our children into years (well into young adulthood) of training in socialism and then expect them to embrace capitalism.” – Roger Taylor
“I chose to allow tax dollars to follow students, but I also wanted to choose abolishing the public school system as it exists today. Like a number of other institutions today, I’m not sure it really can be saved. Maybe it can be if concerned parents continue running for and taking control of school boards. I’m hoping to see more of that.” – Vicki Schwartz
“Like many government programs, public education is generally broken beyond repair. The multiple levels of bureaucracy, localized political dynasties, and discouragement of parental involvement in their children’s education have all resulted in a system that provides only a shadow of the education children routinely received 150 years ago and with less time and money commitment.” – Kevin Wade
“Public schools now do more to indoctrinate than educate. Literacy levels have never been as high as they were during the days of the one-room schoolhouse. Children are not learning the fear of the Lord; they graduate barely literate in reading and math and are told what to think.” – Cathy Blake
“Let’s improve public schools, not abolish them.” – Kathryn Martin
“School districts spend too much money on ‘systems.’ I’m a retired teacher and many times I’ve had to buy my own copy paper and other classroom basics that the district should provide. Fund the things that benefit the teachers and students.” – Dawn Gerstenberger
“The best gauge of a child’s success in education is a concerned and attentive parent. Providing that parent with the tools to furnish his child with the best education available is the most logical way to increase the quality of education. If we could allow the parent to compensate the teacher directly for a job well done, it would be the most efficient way of ensuring that the education system benefits both the student and the teacher for the quality desired.” – Arthur Potter
“Let the vast amount of cash paid by taxpayers follow the student to whatever education avenue his/her parents choose. Perhaps some competition in the education system will produce better results.” – Charles Busbey
“The goal for all students should be the same: learning of standards agreed upon by a group of parents, educators and professionals while keeping students safe. Parents need to be parents and let educators be educators.” – Nancy Lingle Bassham
“From what I’ve seen in every of the 10 school districts I’ve lived in since the early ‘80s is that most of their money is spent more on land acquisition than the education of our kids. What we seem to be funding is real estate investments and high-priced administrators and boards.” – Rick Goncher
“I was tempted to select the old canard of ‘allow tax dollars to fund students, not systems,’ but the more I thought about it, the system itself is broken. With its complete overtake by various education departments within the state, local and federal governments as well as the teachers unions, it’s unsalvageable. I don’t know what the replacement should be, but the current one is completely corrupt to the core.” – Jeff Lanham
“I selected ‘fund students’ not programs, but with the overwhelming majority of woke folk running our schools, the parents will be hard pressed to find a school that actually teaches and doesn’t indoctrinate.” – Garry Ludwig
“Few high school graduates today can read anything beyond a 5th grade level or write in complete sentences. They have limited basic math skills. Therefore, today’s education system provides little to no service to the children. It’s an expensive daycare operation.” – Jane Kappes
“While expanding charter schools is closest to the best answer, that is not the solution. The solution is to cut spending on education and encourage private donors to give for private school scholarships.” – Jim Baxa
“Even though the amount of tax money going into education continues to increase, the quality of the product is on a downward slope. I prefer to have my tax dollars follow the student, where I might get a better return on my investment.” – Alan Smith
“We are paying to educate our children, not support teachers and administrative staff. If funding follows the students, then teachers and administrative staff will have an incentive to do well. When we simply pay for teachers and staff, where is the incentive to do better?” – Ken Hodges