CORSICANA, Texas — In this small city southeast of Dallas, where residents are protective of their public schools, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott touted his plan to allow private school vouchers as necessary to give parents control of their children’s education.
“Parents are angry about woke agendas being pushed on their children in our schools,” the Republican governor said this week during a speech at Park Meadows Academy, a church and school that stresses a Christian education. “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination.”
As he made the argument that “parental empowerment” was needed to help filter what’s being taught in schools, Abbott said that empowerment should include creating a system where parents can use taxpayer-funded vouchers to send their children to private schools.
“We will achieve that with my parental bill of rights to protect parents’ rights,” Abbott said.
In Texas and across the country, parents are demanding a greater say in their children’s education, and it’s been a winning argument for politicians.
In the Virginia governor’s race in 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin pushed parental rights in education. Democrat Terry McAuliffe, at a debate with Youngkin, defended vetoing legislation when he previously served as governor that would have required schools to inform parents about sexually explicit content in books and other education materials, saying, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
McAuliffe lost the race.
Since then states like Florida and Texas have been pushing hard on the issue, and Abbott now sees it as a chance to get the Legislature to approve a voucher plan. Vouchers in the past have been rejected by a coalition of lawmakers representing urban and rural school districts wary of the impact such a plan would have on public schools.
Gathered at Park Meadows were parents, private school officials, students and public school officials.
The public school teachers wore T-shirts supporting public education. Some parents wore red.
Much of the audience was supportive of Abbott, though some wanted more details.
Dave Huber, a 39-year-old Corsicana small-business owner with three kids at Park Meadows, said Abbott’s plan is needed to provide financial relief to parents who can’t afford private schools.
“It’s really just about empowering parents to choose what’s best for their kids. And I think that’s something we all agree on,” he said. “The problem is that there’s a financial burden associated with it (choosing private schools) and there are some people who can’t pay out of pocket.”
But some in the audience worried about the impact of a voucher system on public schools — and teachers.
“I’ve already raised my kids and they’re gone, but I’m still paying taxes and I’m teaching, so there’s a part of me in public school that thinks, if they take all the kids, all the money, then what’s going to happen to the good teachers that are still there?” said Jenni Condra, a teacher in Avalon ISD. “So there’s a Catch-22. I am totally for parents being able to have choices, but then you’ve got some parents that don’t have a clue how to help their kids.”
Education expert’s view
With conservatives excited over parental rights, and concessions expected to mollify legislators from rural school districts, a school voucher plan has a good chance to get through the Legislature and on Abbott’s desk.
But education experts warn that it’s not the way to go.
“We already have diminishing resources for schools. School districts are very challenged with all of the issues of shortage of teachers, et cetera, et cetera. And so the resources will split again,” said former Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, adding that when he was superintendent “less than 40% of our students attended their neighborhood school.
“The other thing is people in private schools are not necessarily held accountable. They don’t have to take the state exam, and they don’t have to comply with discrimination issues. They get to cherry-pick the kids, and in reality, as we’ve seen in other states, 80% of the kids that go to vouchers were already in private schools. They didn’t get them rescued out of the inner city.”
Hinojosa pointed out that conservatives like Abbott wouldn’t be able to control what private school teachers taught, including what could be perceived as “woke.”
Abbott, however, insists “school choice” is necessary.
“This session that we’re in right now, we’re going to add even more money for both education as well as for teacher pay raises,” he said. “It would be wrong to say that more money always leads to better results.”
Hitting the road for parental choice
On Monday Abbott began a campaign-style swing on school choice with his Corsicana appearance, where he was joined by State Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, who has voted against vouchers in the past, but introduced Abbott at the Park Meadows event.
On Tuesday he had a similar event at Covenant Christian School in Conroe.
During his State of the State address last month, Abbott made parental rights a priority item for legislators, including a plan that would create “state funded education savings accounts,” similar to what is in place for Texas special-needs students.
“Now what we need to do is to expand that program to every parent in Texas,” Abbott said.
Before Abbott spoke, Corsicana ISD board president Seth Brown defended public education and teachers.
“We have wraparound specialists. We have counselors, we have licensed professional counselors,” Brown said. “Our teachers are great. Our principals are great. Our system principals are great. We try to work with the whole student. And it doesn’t matter where that kid comes from, or what their background is … it’s part of our core values, so we want to nurture that child and the parents have to come along and they’re part of the ride.”
But some parents want more.
“My kid used to go to the public school and I thought he was getting the best education,” said Greg Guerrero, a Corsicana sales representative who now has two children, ages 11 and 5, in private school. “Reflecting on what my kids now learn, it was not the best education.”
Waxahachie middle school teacher Joy McDonald, who is Condra’s sister, agreed that a voucher plan should be studied to avoid negative impacts on public schools, but she said she’s open to school choice.
“It’s great if they want to have resources for their kids, whether it’s private school or whatever,” she said. “They are raising these kids. They know what’s best for them.”
Abbott on the stump?
Abbott’s speech included familiar campaign themes, which could signal he’s hoping for more than a successful legislative session. The latest Fox News poll showed him at 2% in the GOP race for president. He has said that he’s not thinking about the 2024 presidential sweepstakes, though his chief campaign aides acknowledged that the governor would monitor the situation after the legislative session ends in May.
At Park Meadows, he mentioned his rebound from being paralyzed as a young man as a reason to have school choice. A falling tree broke his back as he jogged in a Houston neighborhood.
“Unable to ever walk again, I could have laid in bed, done nothing, quit. And you know what? People have that choice in life. That was not the choice for me,” he said. “What I learned is that our lives are defined not by how we’re challenged, but instead they’re defined by how we respond to those challenges… It was after the accident that left me in the wheelchair that I went on to become your attorney general and now your governor of the greatest state in the United States.”
He then compared his fight to what Texas faces.
“We as a state are challenged. We got to do a better job of educating our kids,” he said. “And that starts with you, the parents, you the taxpayers, who must get involved. This is a fight. I cannot fight alone. This is a fight where I mean you fighting with me in the trenches every single day.”
But Hinojosa, the former DISD superintendent, called vouchers an unnecessary fight.
“They are all running the same playbook,” he said.
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