The momentum for education reform is overwhelming. State after state is voting to fund students directly, instead of funding failing public education monopolies.
As of this writing, more than 15 states and the District of Columbia have reformed their education systems to create competition through vouchers. More than 30 states now offer Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and/or tax credit scholarships in order to provide the best possible education for every student.
States as conservative as Oklahoma and as liberal as Vermont have come to the same conclusion … that our current, archaic system for funding schools and educating children cannot meet the challenges of the 21st century or the values and aspirations of our citizens.
While many of the problems go back decades, the pandemic lockdowns allowed parents to really see under the hood for the first time. Needless to say, they were not pleased with what they found.
Subsequently, we’ve seen revelation after revelation about kids as early as first grade being exposed to materials about sex, gender identity, and race shaming. We found out about effort after effort to rewrite history—teaching that America and capitalism are evil and even our founding is rooted in racism, sexism, and oppression. Whether inappropriate or just simply lies, these are topics that have no business in any classroom and have no pedagogic value.
At the same time, we get video after video of violence and chaos in classrooms and hallways, with the adults seemingly unable or unwilling to take control. Just last week, America was horrified by a video of two teen boys viciously beating a 9-year-old girl on a public school bus.
Of course, parents are appalled by this radical brainwashing, as well as the often-hostile environments that our kids are forced into every school day.
Since the pandemic, more than 1.4 million families have pulled their kids from public schools in favor of homeschooling or other alternatives. Millions more that can’t afford to homeschool or to attend a private school are crying out for choices, for an opportunity to save their kids from these purple-haired freaks trying to sexualize them and fill them with hatred for themselves, their culture, and their country.
Texas stands at the precipice of this generational change, unsure of whether to jump or pull back. I say, for the sake of our kids, we must jump!
Teachers unions and radical left organizations like the dishonestly named Pastors for Texas Kids will tell you that funding the student will take money from public schools. This is a lie. Every single student in Texas, whether they attend a traditional public school, a magnet school, a charter school, or a homeschool, will receive the same or more money than their public school is receiving for them now.
In other words, if you have a great public school that parents love, they will not see a reduction in funding. If you have a terrible public school and hundreds of students choose a different option, that school will still receive as much or more money for each remaining student. That public school will still be able to raise its standards and compete to get those kids back. That’s the point!
Not one Texas student will receive one penny less in education than they do under the current system. Read that again.
Governor Greg Abbott, who has taken a strong leadership position on this issue, knows reform must be a win/win for students and taxpayers in order to succeed.
The other argument is that rural schools won’t have competition and so it’s unfair. Of course, the same small-town public education bureaucrats are arguing that school choice will starve them of tax money.
Either school choice will starve rural schools or there won’t be any alternatives in rural areas. Both of these things can’t be true at once, but that contradiction won’t stop the shameless gaslighting from the taxpayer-funded monopolists.
In reality, neither of these things is true. There are choices for rural parents, and these reforms will create more. A simple Google search shows that some Texas towns as small as just a few thousand have alternative schools. Many parents from smaller farming communities choose to drive because they want their kids in those schools; they choose to make that sacrifice because they want what’s best for their kids.
And that’s before we even talk about the revolutions in pod schooling, hybrid learning, and all the innovations that competition has and will inspire.
We’re going to hear a lot of nonsense designed to confuse and mislead us in the coming days and weeks. Just remember that the ones telling these lies are the same ones who personally benefit from the current failed system.
This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit your article to submission@texasscorecard.com.
