The Freedom From Religion Foundation has had an op-ed published in the San Antonio newspaper decrying Texas’ latest school voucher scheme.
“It’s a choreographed hustle to starve public schools and mix billions in taxpayer dollars into unaccountable private schools, largely religious,” FFRF’s Legislative Regional Governmental Affairs Manager Mickey Dollens and State Policy Manager Ryan Dudley write in the Express-News. “This coordinated effort represents the most extensive and most expensive private school voucher scheme ever proposed in the Texas House.”
Dollens and Dudley explain in one of Texas’ leading publications how Gov. Greg Abbott and his legislative team are continuing their assault on public education with a direct attack on school budgets:
HB 2 and HB 3 work together to attack public education from two sides. HB 2 gives charter schools more funding and less accountability, while HB 3 sweeps money into private schools with minimal oversight.
The Texas two-step voucher scheme promises up to $10,500 per student, but private school tuition in many Texas cities costs $14,000 to $25,000. Once vouchers are available, tuition often increases, ensuring that private school education is always just out of reach for lower-income families.
Additional costs at private schools, separate from tuition, often include transportation to the school, uniforms, electronics, athletic or arts opportunities, lunch and education travel.
House Republicans say vouchers prioritize low-income students, but private schools are not required to hold seats for them. If those families can’t cover the remaining funds, their spots go to wealthier families instead — turning this into a taxpayer-funded coupon for many parents already paying for their children to attend private schools.
When lawmakers present vouchers as enhancing options for “school choice,” they are blatantly misleading the public. Voucher schemes do little, if anything, to provide students with actual choice.
More than 60 percent of Texas counties don’t even have a private school. Families in these areas will see their public school budgets slashed for a voucher they can’t even use.
Most private K-12 schools in Texas are religiously affiliated, meaning taxpayers, regardless of their own beliefs, would be forced to fund religious education they do not support.
The piece concludes with a rebuke of Abbott’s latest attempt, reminding the governor of the will of his constituents: “Texans have repeatedly made it clear they do not support school vouchers. Last year, a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans in the Texas House shut down similar legislation. Now, the pressure is back on them to hold the line once again.”
You can read the full op-ed here.
This column is part of FFRF’s initiative to engage with pertinent national and state issues and spread the messages of freethought and nontheism to a broader audience.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with nearly 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including over 1,700 members and a chapter in Texas. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
