During the 2013 Texas legislative session, I made my way to Houston to visit one of the grand old men of Texas K-12 reform, the late/great Charles Miller. Miller had long been a pillar of the Houston business community and had been deeply engaged in both K-12 and higher education policy. Mr. Miller and I met for lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant, whereupon I described a litany of woes for school choice supporters in the 2013 session.
Mr. Miller listened, and then patiently explained to me how school district interests “manage” the Texas legislature. His tale revealed that the series of funding lawsuits carried out over many decades were in his view part of a larger and largely successful strategy to stymie and reverse reform of the K-12 system. Mr. Miller had a K-12 agenda outside of choice, and I when I asked him if he was pursuing it in the 2013 session, he responded “Certainly not.” Mr. Miller explained patiently, “This is a lawsuit year.”
At that point I remember looking down at my half-eaten plate of enchiladas and thinking to myself, “This session is going to end badly.” Every Texas legislative session before 2013 had ended badly for private school choice, and every session since, including the 2023 regular and special sessions. In 2024, however, the tables may have finally turned.
The Texas Supreme Court ended the funding lawsuit kabuki theatre a few years ago. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned hard in favor of Republican primary candidates willing to enact their party's platform position on school choice and scored unprecedented victories over incumbent choice opponents.
With a bit more good news from the runoffs, the Texas House’s days of being “managed” by the Muleshoe Machiavellis in the Texas school district industrial lobbying complex might just come to an end in 2025. Stay tuned to this channel for further developments.
Pastors for Texas ChildrenTax Credit Scholarships in Texas are facing a coordinated, albeit misleading, campaign from school choice opponents. One leading source of criticism comes from a group of religious leaders called Pastors for Texas Children.
The group makes a number of incorrect claims including that private schools can “discriminate on race…” The U.S. Supreme Court settled that issue in 1976 deciding that private school admissions could not be based on race.
The pastors also argue the scholarship program would “divert public money to religious schools in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits any establishment of religion.”
The irony is biblical. A tax credit scholarship no more violates the First Amendment than does granting tax exempt status for churches. See relevant court cases here and here.
Your talking points are off by this much.
Putting aside the pastors' confusion over the difference between school vouchers and tax-credit scholarships, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 13 years ago, in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, that school vouchers pass constitutional muster if education is the primary purpose and if parents have options from a variety of religious and non-religious schools.
The First Amendment protects religious pluralism. That's good news for a group of pastors whose own institutions are likely supported by tax -deductible donations and tax-exemptions.
Thelma HarperSen. Thelma Harper (D-Nashville) argued against the proposed Opportunity Scholarship program this week in the Senate Ways and Finance committee. Her testimony included this gem (at about the 1:01:05 mark):
Sen. Harper
"Hell, you didn't have no choice when I came along. You went to public schools and you just went to public schools and that's what we should be doing now. We should put whatever money that they need ... We shouldn't even talk about no choice. Hell, we didn't have no choice. Not at all. You shouldn't have no choice now. You should take care of public schools."
Sen. Harper may have missed the positive effects school choice, via charter schools, is already having for Tennessee’s students.
They wanted a different choice.
But imagine if legislators before Sen. Harper maintained such an admiration for the status quo in education as she does now:
“School buses? We didn't have school buses, we had Conestoga Wagons."
"Small Classrooms? We only had one room."
"Guidance counselors? That was a foot-long paddle with the teachers name on it."
"Reduced price lunches? Why, hamburgers only cost a nickel."
"Air conditioning in school? We called that opening a window."
Sen. Harper may not have had school choice when she was a young girl, but times have changed, in many cases for the better.
Not every school board in Florida wants to sit on its hands when it comes to helping students in struggling charter schools improve. Osceola County School District is stepping in at Acclaim Academy Military Charter School – which faces automatic closure for receiving two consecutive F's - to ensure the school remains open and students can finish the year without major disruptions.
That is good news for students, especially graduating high school seniors. The district has yet to decide if it will continue operating the charter or allow a different operator to take over. At the very least, the district is vetting the principal and teachers to ensure they are capable of continued employment as educators.
Hopefully the district can find a way to turn the school around. At the very least, it's encouraging to see the district's leadership looking out for the well-being of students in the charters it supervises because, as School Board Chairman Tim Weisheyer said (according to the Osceola News-Gazette), "... we know it’s the right thing to do for these kids."
Lisa Falkenberg, columnist for the Houston Chronicle Lisa Falkenberg’s latest column in the Houston Chronicle contains many of the familiar arguments against school choice: it doesn’t benefit students (yes it does), public schools must educate everyone (no they don’t, no they don’t, no they don’t), poor kids won’t get into elite private schools (yes they can, yes they can, yes they can). So maybe its headline, “Can Dan Patrick champion the poor and vouchers in the same breath?” should come as no surprise.
I understand newspaper reporters and columnists don’t always write the titles of their pieces, but that is kind of like asking if you can hold your breath while swimming under water.
Lisa Falkenberg
Sure, Patrick, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Texas, isn’t your quintessential social justice warrior, but he wasn’t wrong when he argued minority students would benefit from school choice. In fact, the “voucher” model he’s looking to bring to Texas is similar to Florida’s tax credit scholarship program (which is administered by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.)
More than two thirds of the students in the Florida program are black or Hispanic, half come from single-family homes and their average household income is 5 percent above the poverty level. And as we’ve noted many times before, the evidence shows these students are now making solid academic progress.
Jeremy Klaszus
According to Jeremy Klaszus, school choice in Calgary, Canada is ruining his local neighborhood. He writes,
“In our neighbourhood, kids who have grown up playing together from infancy onward are now scattered every which way, attending different schools.
As a result, the kids don’t see each other as much and neither do the parents. The social fabric of our neighbourhood is weaker.”
Klaszus’s annual bus pass also went up $35 and that is too great a cost for him, but I digress.
Klaszus is nostalgic for a past where people never traveled more than a few miles from their home (if at all), and he’s worried about kids not playing together if they don’t go to school together. But let’s be clear: If parents are willing to drive their kids across town to school (or spend an extra $35 on a bus pass), they probably don’t hesitate to walk their kids across the street to play with the neighbor’s kids.
Even if they don’t, what is wrong with kids playing with kids from other neighborhoods?
Alabama: Scott Beaulier, chair of the Economics and Finance Division at Troy University, says there is a large body of evidence supporting vouchers but the U.S. Department of Justice and others keep getting in the way (AL.com). The Alabama Education Association spent $7 million to defeat school choice and education reform supporters (Associated Press).
Colorado: A new study on public school transfers shows middle- and upper-class students are more likely to request transfers to another public school than less affluent students (Education Week). ACE Scholarships releases a study on the impact of scholarships on students in the state (Ediswatching.org).
Connecticut: Education leaders in Bridgeport complain that the expansion of charter schools is hurting the district's ability to predict student enrollment and estimate a budget (Connecticut Post).
D.C.: District lawyers claim a charter school funneled millions to a for-profit company to do work that charter school officials were already doing (Washington Post).
Delaware: A new bill will allow the Delaware Board of Education to restrict charter schools to geographic areas and by grade and academic emphasis if the board deems the charters will affect nearby public schools (Delaware Online). Republicans propose a voucher program allowing full scholarships for Free and Reduced Price Lunch students and 25 percent scholarships for students in families earning up to $110,000 annaully (WDDE 99.1 FM).
Florida: Palm Beach County wants a special property tax to fund arts education but the new tax won't benefit the 13,000 students attending charter schools in the county (Sun-Sentinel). McKay Scholarships offer special needs students a way to find a different school that works well for them, but Fund Education Now, a group suing to enforce school uniformity, wants special ed students to have the exact same standards, instructions and method of teacher training at all schools (Sun-Sentinel). The state's graduation rate improves (Education Week, redefinED). (more…)
Arizona: A bill to allow children of military service members killed in action to become eligible for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts passes into law (Watchdog). Gov. Jan Brewer vetoes a bill to allow owners of S-Corps to receive individual tax credits for donations to scholarship funding organizations, but signs two bills related to Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (Arizona Republic, Associated Press).
California: Two Democrats battle for leadership of California's K-12 system: one backed by the establishment and the other backed by education reformers (Reuters).
Colorado: The school choice oriented school board in Jefferson County looks to provide more equity for charter school funding (Denver Post). Fewer students get their first choice in Denver's public school choice program (Chalkbeat).
D.C.: The D.C.Public Charter School Board hears proposals for eight new charter schools (Washington Post).
Delaware: A charter school principal says charter schools were meant to help improve the quality of public education but not intended to simply duplicate public schools (The News Journal).
Florida: The senate revives a plan to expand the tax-credit scholarship program, but the senate's version is less ambitious than the House version (Education Week, Tampa Bay Times, Florida Current, The Ledger, WFSU, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Highlands Today, GTN News, St. Augustine Record, redefinED). William Mattox, an education researcher at the James Madison Institute, argues that private schools already face greater accountability because parents, and donors, can leave at any time (Daytona Beach News-Journal). A local public school PTA president favors school choice and says the legislature should expand options, not deny them (Tampa Tribune). The Palm Beach Post editorial board opposes expanding tax-credit scholarship eligibility from 230 percent of poverty to 260 percent because that now represents the middle class. The Orlando Sentinel editorial board opposes expanding the tax-credit scholarships without more accountability, which the editorial board defines as taking the exact same test as public school students. The Tampa Bay Times editorial board believes it is hypocritical to require the FCAT of public schools and students but not of private school students on scholarship. A private school principal says she supports school choice in all its forms because schools that work for one child may not work well for another (Context Florida). A tax-credit scholarship mom says she is thankful for a program that helps build a future for her children and others (Daytona Beach News-Journal). (more…)
Alabama: Lawmakers approve an increase in individual tax credits for donations to scholarship granting organizations (Gadsden Times). Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal stopped in the state to give a speech about school choice and more (Bayou Buzz).
Alaska: Ben Walker, a math teacher, says the school reform movement is based on a false fear of bad public schools (Anchorage Daily News).
Arizona: The state earned an A rating for charter school laws (Arizona Republic). The state Supreme Court refusal to hear a case on the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts means the program remains constitutional (Capitol Media Services, Associated Press).
California: LA charter schools post big learning gains (Hechinger Report, Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog). Parents are frustrated with school performance in Redwood and two charter school operators hope to fill the need for high quality schools in the district (The Daily Journal).
Colorado: The State Supreme Court will hear a case on the constitutionality of the Douglas Co. voucher program (WRAL, Associated Press).
D.C.: The mayoral race doesn't have any of the heated rhetoric about charter schools that was present in New York last year and that might be due to the lack of a charter school cap in the city (Education Week). A parent, and education reporter, experiences school choice through charter schools (The Atlantic).
Florida: A bill to expand the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program advances (Heartland News, News Service of Florida, Tampa Bay Times, Sun Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times, redefinED). Mandating FCAT testing for all private scholarship students is debated (Tampa Tribune). Only a day after the tax-credit scholarship expansion bill is sent to the House floor, the Senate sponsor withdraws the bill from consideration in the state's upper chamber (Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, Associated Press, Politifix). Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill issues a statement about the expansion bill being withdrawn (redefinED). School choice supporters debate mandating private school voucher students take the FCAT (Watchdog). The Florida Citizens for Science want private schools accepting tax-credit scholarships to teach evolution (Tampa Bay Times). Jason Bedrick of the Cato Institute, sees a silver lining in the tabling of the tax-credit scholarship expansion bill. Rita Solnet, president of Parents Across Florida, believes vouchers hurt a parents choice for a good public school (Huffington Post, Washington Post). The Washington Post reprints an error filled op-ed against school choice (redefinED). The president of Fund Education Now, a group arguing for more money for public schools, writes an op-ed opposing the expansion calling the program unaccountable (Orlando Sentinel). A bill to create education savings accounts for special needs students advances in the Senate (redefinED). Education in the state has been improving (Saint Peter's Blog). Military style charter schools become more popular in the state (redefinED).
Illinois: The Chicago Tribune editorial board endorses school choice candidates.
Republicans look to expand charter schools and vouchers (Tampa Bay Times). One out of every 10 students in Palm Beach attend charter schools (Palm Beach Post).
Kansas: Debate over school funding of poor districts begins after high court ruling on the adequacy suit (Education Week). To address the adequacy funding issue Republicans plan to increase low-income district funding and allow more public charter schools (Wichita Eagle). Lawmakers consider education tax credit scholarships (Heartland News). (more…)
Alabama: A bill advances to increase the individual tax credit for donations to private scholarship organizations (Montgomery Advertiser).
Alaska: Vic Fischer, a former delegate to the Alaska Constitutional Convention, opposes any amendment that would allow public funds for private and religious schools (Alaska Dispatch). A bill to allow the public to vote on such an amendment is pulled from the Senate (Alaska Dispatch).
Arizona: A plan to expand Education Scholarship Accounts advances in the legislature (Arizona Republic, Fox News). A special needs parent says public schools work great for her child and she worries that giving options to parents who aren't satisfied will make her child's education worse (Arizona Daily Star).
California: The court rules against Rocketship Education, arguing the Santa Clara County School Board cannot override local zoning ordinances to place charter schools (San Jose Mercury News). The CEO of the California Charter School Association says completion rates for college preparatory coursework is twice as high in Oakland-area charter schools than in local district schools (Contra Costa Times). A CREDO report reveals LA area charter schools outperform traditional district schools (KPCC 89.3).
Colorado: School choice critics in Jefferson County might want to tone down their rhetoric, according to columnist Vincent Carroll (Denver Post).
D.C.: Eight education groups apply to open new charter schools (Washington Post).
Florida: The Tampa Tribune editorial board argues in favor of expanding tax credit scholarships. The Miami Herald editorial board says tax credit scholarships drain public school funding. Columnist Frank Cerabino says tax credit scholarships don't help the poor (Palm Beach Post). The Ocala Star Banner editorial board says the state should increase funding to public schools before funding private scholarships. Doug Tuthill, president of Step Up for Students, says tax-credit scholarships help poor students and are functionally no different to a neighborhood school's budget than a magnet or IB school (Palm Beach Post). Watchdog writes up the proposed expansion bill. The Jewish Leadership Coalition lobbies for tax credit scholarships for Jewish Day Schools (Jewish Journal). Nan Rich, a Democrat candidate for governor, blasts current Gov. Rick Scott and primary challenger Charlie Christ over their support for school choice (Sunshine State News). The state Senate advances a bill that would encourage military bases to explore charter schools (redefinED, Tampa Bay Times). Duval County School District may soon allow open enrollment for all public schools in the district (Florida Times-Union, First Coast News, Florida Times Union). Florida Virtual School holds a demonstration at the state Capitol (WCTV). A charter school in Miami-Dade opens a junior college on the campus (Miami Herald). The League of Women Voters draws criticism for opposing school choice and other issues (Tampa Tribune). Tax Credit Scholarships, ESAs and charter schools are among the bills being considered by the state legislature (Miami Herald). The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship cap may triple in size over the next five years and if it does, so will the state allowances to scholarship granting organizations (Palm Beach Post).
Idaho: The House passes a tax credit scholarship bill (The Friedman Foundation). (more…)
Alaska: The state's Blaine Amendment prohibits voucher programs which is why the state legislature seeks to pass a constitutional amendment (Anchorage Daily News). Vouchers discussed in the state assembly (The Frontiersman). Support for the amendment decreases (Alaska Dispatch). Even though the proposed amendment does not create a voucher program, Dermot Cole, the editor of the Alaska Dispatch, says supporters must estimate the costs of a voucher program. The charter school movement grows statewide (Coolidge Examiner). Rural parents voice concerns about school choice (The Seward Phoenix Log). Should voters decide the amendment (Alaska Dispatch)? Two Democrats argue that magnet and charter schools are enough choice for parents (Anchorage Daily News). The mayor of Anchorage argues that many western democracies fund public and private schools (Anchorage Daily News).
Arizona: The non-profit running the phone calls to parents informing them of their right to school choice says the phone numbers were bought from a private agency, not the state Department of Education (Arizona Republic).
Connecticut: Gov. Dannel Malloy wants charter schools to access the school safety grant fund (West Hartford News).
D.C.: The charter school board postpones its vote to close a low-performing charter school (Washington Post).
Delaware: Two charter schools could serve as models for Rep. Eric Cantor (Daily Caller).
Florida: In a column at The Ledger, former state Sen. Paul Dockery argues for more school spending, less testing and that tax credit scholarship students take the FCAT. A new bill on the tax credit scholarship program looks to increase the scholarship amount and cap while allowing higher-income families access to partial scholarships (redefinED, News Service of Florida, Associated Press). Two school choice advocates argue that forcing private schools to administer the FCAT may weaken the appeal of private schools (Orlando Sentinel). The Florida League of Women Voters opposes expanding the tax credit scholarship program, arguing that private schools are too different from public schools (Orlando Advocate). Financial errors between district and charter schools will cost the Broward County School District $1.7 million in fines (Miami Herald, NBC 4). Julie Young led the Florida Virtual School for 16 years before retiring (Education Next). (more…)
Alaska: Not all Republicans agree on changing the constitution to allow private school vouchers for students to attend religious schools (Anchorage Daily News, Education Week). Could private schools discriminate based on religious beliefs if they accept public funds (Anchorage Daily News)? The editorial board of the Anchorage Daily News argues that the constitutional amendment to allow public funding of private schools should be vetted in the state's education committee.
Arizona: A proposed bill in the state legislature will allow students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch access to Empowerment Scholarship Accounts and increase the household income cap by 15 percent per year (East Valley Tribune, Arizona Daily Sun). Opponents of school choice are upset that the state superintendent is making low-income parents aware of all of their educational options, including the right to attend a private school (Arizona Republic, Washington Post, Tucson Weekly, Tucson Weekly).
Arkansas: Americans United for the Separation of Church and State complains about two charter schools teaching creationism in biology class (Arkansas Times).
California: The superintendent of LA public schools speaks favorably of school choice (Joanne Jacobs). The state leads the nation in charter school growth and enrollment (Contra Costa Times). The school district in San Diego makes requirements for charter schools more difficult if the charters want access to public construction dollars approved by voters (The Voice of San Diego). A city employee who vandalized a public school, which was being taken over by a charter school, may lose her job (Hechinger Report).
Connecticut: Public support grows for a new charter school in Bridgeport (Connecticut Post).
Florida: After failing to get a public middle school built in the neighborhood, parents in Woodville now support a proposed charter middle school (Tallahassee Democrat). Some members of the Florida legislature want to add a FCAT testing requirement to school choice students (Orlando Sentinel). The state saw the 4th highest growth in charter school enrollment nationwide (Palm Beach Post). School choice and civil rights takes center stage at a debate on education (South Florida Times). The Palm Beach Post editorial board favors requiring charter schools to post a $250,000 bond in case they close or are shut down. U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) visits a private school serving low-income tax-credit scholarship students to talk about school choice (redefinED, Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune, Creative Loafing). Potential changes to the state's tax-credit program may be coming, including partial scholarships and sales tax credits (Tampa Bay Times). The state's tax credit scholarship program provides opportunities to disadvantaged students in the state (WEAR TV). (more…)
