Stunned silence filled the Cuero ISD board room when Superintendent Micah Dyer shared an update on the successful movement in the state legislature to pass the latest version of school vouchers. With a projected decrease of 10% in public education funding when vouchers are fully realized, Dyer said cutbacks in personnel will be inevitable.
After the discussion, the board passed a resolution calling for the rejection of “any diversion of public dollars to private entities in the form of education savings accounts and similar voucher schemes.”
Dyer said that he spoke with Senator Lois Kolkhorst for almost an hour, and his understanding was that the private schools would have “no strings attached, no accountability.” And whereas public school receives $6,500 per student attending, private schools will receive $10,000 in taxpayer money per student enrolled.
Accountability
Dyer said the only accountability that private schools will have is the ACT and SAT scores for senior year, while public school accountability starts in kindergarten.
“But you don’t hold them accountable if they don’t have average scores on the SAT or ACT,” he said.
Also, private school funding will be tied to enrollment, while public school funding is tied to attendance.
“They (Kolkhorst and Louderback) said it does not matter if the kid shows up or not, if they’re enrolled in that school, we will send the money to go to that school,” Dyer said.
“Tell me how this is a level playing field,” he said, “that you’re not trying to kill public education.”
Dyer said when a bad flu season hits, like this year, those absences really start to hurt in lost revenue. He also discussed the truancy efforts of the district.
Finances
“If I pull my three kids (out of public school), that’s $30,000. I don’t pay anywhere near $30,000 in property taxes,” Dyer said. “How is this not a gifting of public funds?”
Dyer said when he asked Representative AJ Louderback about gifting of public funds, Louderbach responded “‘It’s in the governor’s mind.’ “
“That’s kinda like mama said ‘because I said so,’” Dyer said. “That’s not really an answer. I guess we’re children. We have to accept it because mama said so.”
He said the majority of the state of Texas said they were against vouchers, yet it is still being pushed.
In the audience District Nurse Wanda Hayes asked “And it's the people that we researched before we voted that said they were not going to hurt public education that now have voted in favor of these vouchers?”
“They told me ‘we have to pass it,’” Dyer said.
Status of legislation
In the first week of February, the Texas Senate passed their version of a voucher bill (SB2) that allocates $1 billion dollars to tuition at accredited private schools with $10,000 allotted per student ($11,200 for a special population).
Dyer said the plan was to pilot it the first two years with funding for about a hundred thousand students (or 1/%) “to jump ship this year. Next one is 300,000 and so on and so forth as they go. We’re hearing 5 and possibly 10 (%) in the next legislative session.”
He said the house version of the bill is rebranded as education savings accounts to take the stigma off the concept.
On February 20, the House released its bill (HB1) that would increase teacher pay and rework accountability. It also linked public and private per student ratios, with the private rate per student at 85% of the public per-student rate.
“They have to pass it out of the house, and they’ve got to come back and argue and go back and forth on it,” Dyer said. “It's really sad to me that we have a lot of superintendents in the state of Texas who have just given up the fight because they've already got the votes. But I haven't given up the fight.”
He said other school boards around the state are also sending resolutions like the one passed by the Cuero board to their state representatives. The board unanimously passed the resolution.
The full text of the resolutions reads:
WHEREAS, Article 7, Section 1 of the Texas Constitution requires that the Texas Legislature "establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools;"
WHEREAS, Texas public school districts accept every student;
WHEREAS, education savings accounts and other voucher schemes give private schools, not parents, the right to choose;
WHEREAS, Texas public schools adhere to state-mandated academic and financial accountability standards;
WHEREAS, private schools are not required to meet the same academic standards as public schools, and they do not report test results, graduation rates, and other performance measures to the public;
WHEREAS, school choice already exists in the Texas via public school districts, charter schools, inter- and intra-district transfers, home schools, virtual schools, and private schools;
WHEREAS, education savings accounts and similar voucher schemes eliminate public accountability of schools and tax dollars;
WHEREAS, using tax dollars to pay for tuition at private and religious schools would grow into a costly entitlement program;
WHEREAS, a taxpayer-funded voucher program would reduce the amount of state funds available for all schools, harming many rural Texas communities where families have few, if any, private school options; and
WHEREAS, Texas parents who accept a voucher would lose out on a long list of important parental rights outlined in Texas state education code and in federal law, especially protections for students receiving special education services;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Cuero ISD Board of Trustees calls on the Texas Legislature to reject any diversion of public dollars to private entities in the form of education savings accounts and similar voucher schemes..
