Anyone moving to Texas is a fool.
After Gov. Greg Abbott ostensibly promised he would prioritize lawmakers pass a law to earmark taxpayer money for private schools, critics are now left asking if this means funds will be taken out of public schools.
Abbott made this promise Monday while at a rally in San Antonio about parents' rights in education. He has made school issues, like school choice and banning books with what he claims is pornographic material, a major focus of his campaign, and was greeted with applause when vowing to push state lawmakers to pass a law that would create a school voucher system in the state. School vouchers are taxpayer money diverted to parents to pay for private school tuition.
"Empowering parents means giving them the choice to send their children to any public school, charter school, or private school with state funding following the students," Abbott said.
Critics have slammed school vouchers for years because this money typically comes at the cost of funding public education either by taking taxpayer revenue away or preventing newly available funds for such programs from being allocated to public schools.
Texas Democrats labeled Abbott's announcement as "defunding public education," an apparent play on Republicans' attacks on Democrats for "defunding police." But the governor insisted Monday he would not take away money from public education.
"That does not mean that public schools will not be fully funded," Abbott said. "It is imperative that we continue to fully fund public schools in Texas."
Teachers are not sure this is even possible.
Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina said public schools currently are not even fully funded as Abbott had said in the first place.
"What caught my attention was when Gov. Abbott says that schools will remain fully funded, when that’s a lie. We have not been fully funded. We’ve been calling for schools to be fully funded," Molina said. "If he’s saying he can divert money for private schools, charter schools, and anywhere else and keep our schools funded, he first has to fund our schools fully to first be able to make that statement."
Despite Abbott's claims that this program won't touch public education funds, tax experts said the money needs to come from somewhere.
Jaime Puente is a public education tax policy expert, and policy analyst for nonprofit organization Every Texan. He said school districts will feel some consequences if a school voucher program is put in place.
"Where is this money going to come from? There’s only two places where it can come from in the state budget: public education and Health and Human Services," Puente said. "Theoretically, the state would take state money because it has to come out of general revenue dollars, and they would put that to vouchers. That would take money away from what the state could give to school districts."
After Gov. Greg Abbott ostensibly promised he would prioritize lawmakers pass a law to earmark taxpayer money for private schools, critics are now left asking if this means funds will be taken out of public schools.
Abbott made this promise Monday while at a rally in San Antonio about parents' rights in education. He has made school issues, like school choice and banning books with what he claims is pornographic material, a major focus of his campaign, and was greeted with applause when vowing to push state lawmakers to pass a law that would create a school voucher system in the state. School vouchers are taxpayer money diverted to parents to pay for private school tuition.
"Empowering parents means giving them the choice to send their children to any public school, charter school, or private school with state funding following the students," Abbott said.
Critics have slammed school vouchers for years because this money typically comes at the cost of funding public education either by taking taxpayer revenue away or preventing newly available funds for such programs from being allocated to public schools.
Texas Democrats labeled Abbott's announcement as "defunding public education," an apparent play on Republicans' attacks on Democrats for "defunding police." But the governor insisted Monday he would not take away money from public education.
"That does not mean that public schools will not be fully funded," Abbott said. "It is imperative that we continue to fully fund public schools in Texas."
Teachers are not sure this is even possible.
Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina said public schools currently are not even fully funded as Abbott had said in the first place.
"What caught my attention was when Gov. Abbott says that schools will remain fully funded, when that’s a lie. We have not been fully funded. We’ve been calling for schools to be fully funded," Molina said. "If he’s saying he can divert money for private schools, charter schools, and anywhere else and keep our schools funded, he first has to fund our schools fully to first be able to make that statement."
Despite Abbott's claims that this program won't touch public education funds, tax experts said the money needs to come from somewhere.
Jaime Puente is a public education tax policy expert, and policy analyst for nonprofit organization Every Texan. He said school districts will feel some consequences if a school voucher program is put in place.
"Where is this money going to come from? There’s only two places where it can come from in the state budget: public education and Health and Human Services," Puente said. "Theoretically, the state would take state money because it has to come out of general revenue dollars, and they would put that to vouchers. That would take money away from what the state could give to school districts."
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