TX: How Bad Is The Newest Voucher Proposal

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is finding democracy a huge pain in the butt these days. Democratically elected legislators will not let him have his way, so he has called the legislature back once again to consider his dream of education savings account vouchers, or else. He has threatened to primary rural GOP House members who (once again) thwart him. He is holding teacher pay hostage unless he gets his way. He is not, it should be noted, taking his voucher proposal to the voting public (because the voting public has never approved a voucher program).

In short, he is pulling every lever of power he has at his command in order to circumvent any sort of democratic process.

That's an appropriate tactic for installing vouchers, which themselves short-circuit democratic processes. Vouchers disenfranchise taxpayers with no school age children; in voucher world they get no say in how their education tax dollars are spent. Vouchers cut local elected school boards out of the funding (or defunding process). 

And despite all the talk about education freedom for families, vouchers create a system in which schools--not families--get to choose who has access to the best education. 

When we look into SB 1, the latest voucher proposal that has already sailed past the state senate to the rocky waters of the house, where Texas voucher bills go to die, we find most of the usual stuff. A little more auditing of parents than some bills, but no real oversight or accountability for "education service providers," who require no serious vetting to get on the pre-approved vendors' list.

Modern voucher bills routinely include a hands off clause, a promise that they will be allowed to conduct business as they wish, with no interference by the state. Don't want the state bringing up pesky issues of discrimination or teaching that dinosaurs and humans strolled the earth together about 4,000 years ago.

SB 1 includes hands off language, and very specific language at that. Starting out with the usual language about how accepting voucher money does not make the recipients state actors (a phrase that has caused some legal choice trouble in the past). Then, under Sec. 29.368, we get very clear:

A rule adopted or other governmental action taken related to the program may not impose requirements that are contrary to or limit the religious or institutional values or practices of an education service provider, vendor of educational products, or program participant, including by limiting the ability of the provider, vendor, or participant, as applicable, to:

(1) determine the methods of instruction or curriculum used to educate students;

(2) determine admissions and enrollment practices, policies, and standards;

(3) modify or refuse to modify the provider’s, vendor’s, or participant’s religious or institutional values or practices, including operations, conduct, policies, standards, assessments, or employment practices that are based on the provider’s, vendor’s, or participant’s religious or institutional values or practices; or

(4) exercise the provider’s, vendor’s, or participant’s religious or institutional practices as determined by the provider, vendor, or participant

Note in particular item 2-- nobody can tell the private school how to decide which students to take, or not. Religion, behavior, grades, hair style, family background, basically any damn thing that the school wants to offer as a reason not to accept a particular student is untouchable by the state. And I'm pretty sure that they could get around any pesky federal rules about race. 

For the moment, let's look past the issue here of quality, of a law that would require taxpayers to support a school that does a lousy job, that discriminates in ways that most Americans would find odious, that is a transparently crappy school that taxpayers have no say in funding. Oh, and that requires students with special needs jettison their rights at the schoolhouse door.

Let's look past all that at the central pitch of the fans of SB 1. 

From Mandy Drogin the head of the Texas branch of Betsy DeVos's American Federation for Children lobbying group, lobbyist, and previous Heritage Foundation event planner:

With today’s announcement, Governor Abbott has made clear that Texas will prioritize student-centered educational policies that ensure that money will follow the student to any school their parents choose – this includes high-quality public schools, public charter schools, private schools, and more.

Except, no, it won't. It will prioritize private-school-centered policies which will allow private schools to pick and choose, as they wish, from among the applicants (who may or may not be able to afford the gap between their voucher amount and private school tuition). It will prioritize private-school-centered policies that allow taxpayer subsidies for students who were already in private schools.

If these people were serious about school choice, they would address the real barriers to getting students into their choice school--cost and discrimination. But they won't. 

By allowing taxpayer subsidies to go to students who were already in private schools (aka could already afford it), SB 1 funnels dollars collected from low-wealth taxpayers to subsidize wealthy families, even as it empowers private schools to refuse to admit any of Those Peoples' Children. 

It's bad policy. Here's hoping the state house once again holds the line, no matter how hard Abbott tries to twist their arms.