In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed he would bring school vouchers to Texas as part of his reelection campaign.
Abbott made good on that promise two weeks ago while sacrificing your future public taxpayer dollars and the dignity of educators along the way. And he made sure to line his pockets with historic donations from out-of-state billionaires that seem to want nothing less than the elimination of public schools.
Senate Bill 2 was signed into law by the governor on May 3, and allows families to fund their children’s education at a private school on the taxpayers’ dime — money out of your wallet and out of already-underfunded public schools.
The law will go into effect on Sept. 1, with the program expected to launch at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year.
The Texas school voucher program will provide roughly $10,000 per year for each child in a participating family. Projected costs of the program for the first two years are expected to reach $1 billion. It could be as much as $4.8 billion by 2030, according to some state budget experts.
School vouchers exist in 25 iterations across 14 states and the District of Columbia, yet are still largely unproven in actual success, both in academics and in providing affordable private education alternatives.
In 2019, a University of Arkansas study presented findings that students in Louisiana who enrolled at their first-choice private school declined in test scores.
When Florida reformed its voucher program in 2023, one-quarter of the funds went to the state’s wealthiest families — families that could already afford to send their kids to school for $15,000 annually before their neighbors’ dollars were looped in.
Texas Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) best described it as “welfare for the wealthy.”
The reasons why Abbott and his top brass make moves to inch closer to a fully private education system are clear to me: they fear an education system that produces people who don’t think exactly like them and their donors — a diverse (yes, the dreaded D-word) group of kids that will one day be voters and leaders in this state who aren’t carbon copy conservative Christians.
Did I mention the governor receives millions in donations to do this, including the largest single campaign check ($6 million) in Texas history?
And while I have a fundamental disagreement as to why, I’m even more appalled with how school vouchers came to be.
From beginning to end, vouchers have had “scam” written all over them.
Republicans first tried to poison the water by calling it “school choice,” suggesting public schools were in some way a roadblock to educational freedom.
Then they slammed us with boogeyman, three-letter acronyms like DEI and CRT to increase the faux hysteria and discredit the learning environment. I’ll give it to the Republicans, only they could manipulate “diversity, equity and inclusion” to seem like an evil, coordinated attack from Democrats.
And then came the outright deceit.
Republicans shouted baseless claims of librarians being sexual predators. They claimed teachers were indoctrinating students, all while lobbying for laws that force religious texts into classrooms. They wanted you to hate your local educators for nothing other than personal gain, thinly-veiled as “parental rights.”
When enough lies were spread, they went in for the real kill with outrageous, already-debunked claims. The most ridiculous, and yet somehow effective tactic, was the FURRIES (Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education) Act.
There is specific bill text outlining the ban of schools providing litter boxes for students as an alternative to the bathroom. Yes, an elected official used taxpayer money to write something that stupid and unnecessary.
It was a conspiracy from the beginning, just like a dozen other lies Republican lawmakers spread while promoting school vouchers. Abbott specifically used the litter box example while lobbying for vouchers, meanwhile the author of the FURRIES Act, Texas Rep. Stan Gerdes (R-Smithville), admitted there wasn’t a documented instance of it happening.
Can it get any more deceitful, shameless or evil than that? Unfortunately, the track record tells us it likely will.
As a product of Texas public schools, and a proud member of a family of public educators, it’s insulting and disturbing to see how our governor and other top Republicans view schools they’ve never even stepped foot into.
I could write thousands of words about the 40-plus years my mom has killed herself in public education. I could produce a massive ledger of all the classroom expenses she’s covered on her own dime over the years. I could even bore you to death with a hundred stories of witnessing former students greet her in the grocery store 25 years since they last had her in class.
While my mom is a superhero, she’s not the only one. Countless others are also sacrificing time, money and health to give students the best public education possible on less-than-glamorous compensation. I see it around Wise County. I hear about it from superintendents and in school board meetings.
And there’s still 300,000 more teachers in Texas that are fighting this good fight as the outlook becomes bleak. I pray they don’t give up, but understand if they have to.
I hope my mom knows how much I cherished the time of being her student at Walnut Creek Elementary during the day, then spending the evening running around with the rat pack of teachers’ kids while our parents worked from sunrise to sundown.
I hope Keri Dorris realizes how much she inspired my and my classmates’ love for writing and storytelling in her seventh grade English class at Forte Junior High, always challenging us to dig deeper.
I hope Kacie Davis and Chad Cooke know that their willingness to be therapists first and teachers second helped me through my hardest days at Azle High School when I needed a friendly face rather than a math lesson.
Even when our Republican lawmakers have given up on public education, I hope those teachers, and ones all across the state, know they’re still doing noble work.
Please remember the 89th Texas Legislature and how Republican lawmakers sold you out for “school choice.” Remember the days, months and years Abbott spent disparaging public education, perpetuating hoaxes about our schools and holding public school funding hostage until he could please his mega donors.
Remember it all, and let it eat away at you. Then take it to the polls in 2026 when the anti-public school, pro-voucher block is on the ballot and make the right choice.
- Brendan Marchand is the assistant editor of the Wise County Messenger
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