With the Republican victory last November, many are predicting this will be the year that a program to give away public tax dollars for people to use to send their children to private schools will finally pass. While there will likely be more support for the idea in the upcoming session than in years past, the question is whether the pro-voucher advocates can agree on a bill that will have enough support to become law. We do not yet know what that bill will look like.
There is a lot of propaganda out there on both sides of the debate. But what we want to know is, what would the actual impact of vouchers on San Angelo’s public and private schools? Over the next six months of the 89th Legislative Session we are going to try to find out. THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS will be a series of articles over the session seeking an answer to this question and others.
For example, is it true that vouchers would have no impact on rural schools? What about cities the size of San Angelo and Abilene? Will national, private venture, corporate schools move in to the area and start competing for those dollars against our current private and charter schools? Will private schools be required to have the same testing and performance standards as public schools? How would such a system work? Will I have to pay more in taxes to support it? What will happen to the funding for my kid’s public school? Will my child actually get a better education? How will this affect the taxes I have to pay? Will it impact property tax valuations at all? We hope to answer these questions and many others just like them. We will be speaking to educators, principals, public and private school leaders, state legislators, education, financial and tax policy experts to see if we can find out.
Our first article in January will be an exploration of all the various plans and bills that look like they may have traction in Austin this session. We want to understand and help explain what the differences are between them and the pros and cons if they become law.
Sign up for the email edition of The Concho Democrat e-zine on our website and follow along as we search for the answers to these questions.
