Looks like we’re going to get a first hand look at how school choice fares in Texas as the current bill will almost certainly become law. What’s interesting is while almost 2/3rds of Texans support the bill it’s Black Texans who support the measure by a whopping 69%.
Okay Mr. “Free Speech” Protector…
- Thread starter astonmartin708
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Because their communities schools have been so underfunded by the state (for specifically this purpose) that they think this will be a way to buy their way into other communities' schools.....
Which will last for a whole 10 seconds until the local Baptist pastor's wife realizes that a bunch of inner city kids are going to be in their precious baby's class.... they will feel uncomfortable with this and overtake the admission's process....
They will then deny the inner city kids' admission (never outright saying they're doing it based on race so they don't get sued. Maybe they'll just up the tuition to the voucher price plus a premium that the poor folks can't afford) and meanwhile the African Americans will still be stuck in 'crappy' public schools.... only this time with even worse funding... because we gave the money to the pastor's wife.
It's a hidden way for bigots to cement a caste system... and as aTUfan says "keep more of THEIR money" because they don't want to pay into the public educations system.
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I love seeing black parents who want a better education for their kids through access to better schools only to hear white liberals doing everything they can to force them to stay in the same crappy schools with the same crappy education with the same crappy outcomes with the same crappy cycle of poverty and crime. All the while proposing zero solutions for a never ending problem. Hard to maintain control over them if they aren’t dependent on you for basic necessities I suppose. So let’s continue to force them to attend failed schools even when a vast majority want alternatives
And you think this republican plan in Texas that offers them a 10k voucher to go to a 20k tuition school does them any good? Both the Democrats & the Republicans are selling them a bill of goods. Neither party is fixing the problem, but the bill of goods the republicans are selling them makes the system much worse.
I don't want to 'maintain control' over anyone.
I did propose a solution. Redistribute property tax funds across a wider area so those dollars aren't tied up in wasteful projects in the suburbuan districts. Take the money from Union, Jenks, Owasso, Bixby, BA, etc... that they use to build palatial football stadiums and IPF's and give it to Booker T Washington to improve the Math and Reading programs.
Stop allowing for tax increases to fund buildings and capital expenditure but not teacher pay.
There you go.... two solutions...
The real problem is that the suburban parents want their kids to go to the palatial school and don't want their dollars to be pooled and used by poor schools. (That's why they moved where they did in the first place) They also put too much emphasis on athletics and extra curriculars and not enough emphasis on school. (Not that I'm saying extra curriculars shouldn't be supported)
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Charter schools are public funded without accountability.
www.propublica.org
This Charter School Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 Students.
On paper, Salvador Cavazos earns less than $300,000 to run Valere Public Schools, a small Texas charter network. But taxpayers likely aren’t aware that in reality, his total pay makes him one of the country’s highest-earning superintendents.
The real problem is how education is viewed by many of the parents in these urban schools. No amount of money is going to help until parents in those districts begin to value education. A kid who studies and excel scholastically shouldn’t be ostracized by his piers but yet here we are. TPS has attempted to throw money at their low performing schools by giving educators bonuses and higher salaries for teaching in those districts. Those efforts have largely failed in large part due to the lack of parental support.
You do in fact want to keep those uppity minorities in place by denying them what they are asking for….access to a better education and life for their children. They know firsthand what these schools are like and have been for decades. I don’t blame them one bit for wanting their kids to be around other kids and families who value education rather than ridicule it.
Any answer which doesn’t start with changing societal values in those areas is destined for failure. All the money in the world won’t matter until education is valued.
What you're suggesting doesn't actually solve problems. It's just an excuse. You're simultaneously saying that parents in these districts don't care about their children's education, but also that they want to send their kids somewhere better and are willing to invest the time money and effort to do so rather than sending their kid to a local school?
How are those kids going to get to the suburban schools, fly on brooms? You already said you don't want to bus them. Their parents aren't going to be able to take off work every day to drive across town to drop them off.
Washington State's Constitution gives a high priority to children's education. The state both caps how much affluent communities can individually pay for local education and also collects and redistributes school funding statewide. IT's not a perfect system, but recognizes the issue and smooths the differences,
There are obvious parents in these districts who want a better education for these kids. See minority support for vouchers. Didn’t think I needed to state the obvious but apparently I was wrong. The problem is they are often in the minority. They’ve lived in the districts for years. They know better than anyone on this board the atmosphere in these schools and the difficulties kids face scholastically. Which is why they want better for their children. They certainly believe changing schools is a viable option. I have no reason not to believe them. If white liberals want to keep minorities seeking a better life and education in their failing schools then I suppose it is what it is. I don’t support the cycle of poverty and crime. Especially when there are people trying to escape the same.
What I’m suggesting is the only way to solve the problem. We must start by changing the attitude toward education in these communities. TPS teachers in at risk schools are the highest paid teachers in TPS. Has the money increased student performance….no. When students don’t do their assigned work and the teacher contacts the parent over the problem and receives no response there’s just not much that teacher can do. Everything starts with the parents and that needs to be the initial focus.
I was listening to Charles Barkley the other day. He spends a lot to time visiting schools and talking to kids. He said he will ask kids at suburban schools to raise their hands if they want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, etc… 90% of hands go up. He then asks how many want to be professional athletes and he gets 10% or less. He then asks that same question at urban schools and the responses are exactly opposite. Explains in part why the lack of value placed on education
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You are contnually getting away from the issue you started out addressing though. Abbott is taking away from schools that are problem schools and reallocating it to wealthy parents in the form of a tuition coupon. Only those who can afford the rest of the tuition costs will use this. No poor parents can afford the rest of the tuition costs at private achools. If anything it should be allocated to those in need just like pell grants, for what the parents can afford in relation to tuition where the kid is applying to.
