As a parent myself, I read Ms. Gurr’s editorial in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with much interest. All parents want what is best for their children. I suspect no obstacle placed in front of them would be insurmountable.
When my children’s mom and I were picking out schools for our three children, we visited the schools, attended school “fairs” where various schools had staff and faculty there to answer questions, we talked with our friends and neighbors about the choices they made for their children, and we made our choice with our children’s best interests in mind.
This got me to thinking: could it be that Texas parents do not already have the option to choose where their children go to school? While I still consider myself a ‘new arrival’ to Texas, surely the state where freedom rings so loudly must provide parents with school choice.
Yeah, parents already HAVE choice in Texas. They can choose to send their children to the public school closest to their home. Alternatively, they can select a magnet school or a private school outside of the public school system. Texas parents can even homeschool their children if they prefer.
This is where the confusion lies: when advocates for voucher programs that take public dollars out of the public school system say “choice”, what they REALLY mean is they want the choice to starve our valued public institutions of desperately needed resources. They want the ability to direct public resources – that is, taxpayer dollars – and use them to pay for private school.
Ms. Gurr is correct in characterizing SOME of the public schools in Texas (and elsewhere) as having failed students. It’s true that public schools don’t offer as many options as private schools in many circumstances. I take issue with her saying that the SYSTEM has failed. This is false. The ‘system’ of making public school available to all children in a geographical area irrespective of need, ability, or resource levels of the parents or guardians is a solid system. It is a system that society embraces and holds up as a public good, and rightly so.
Where does the failure of public education lie? This is a critical component to the debate because as we all know, the first step in solving a problem is knowing that it exists. Public schools are staffed by committed public employees and faculty who get into the field to serve children. They are NOT in it for the money, that’s for sure.
Yes, there are bad actors everywhere; in public and private schools, in government, in business, and in churches among other institutions. However, the ‘system’ of providing a basic education for all students is sound. The failure lies in our elected officials who perpetually underfund public schools. The failure lies in the rhetoric used by those politicians who argue that the private sector delivers better quality services because of some magical ‘invisible hand’ that makes private better than public. The failure lies in those elected officials’ cowardice in leadership by failing to tell their constituents that good public services cost money. Education is an expensive good to provide irrespective of whether it is public or private. And ultimately, the failure lies with the voters who swallow the “taxes are BAD!” rhetoric.
I work in a public educational institution. Most of the students I interact with are products of the public school system in Texas. You know what a student said to me the other day when we were talking about taxes in class? “Taxes are the subscription we pay for modern society.” That’s a pretty insightful and intelligent observation from a student ‘failed’ by the public school system.
We already have school ‘choice’. However, as members of organized and civilized modern society, we don’t get to select the public services we fund from a menu. If we believe that the police aren’t doing a good enough job, we don’t get to divert our tax dollars to private security systems. The same goes for fire protection, libraries, and public parks. “I use Bicentennial Park, so I choose to fund that, but I don’t use Memorial Park, so I withhold my tax dollars from funding THAT park.” That sort of sentiment is just as ridiculous as saying, “I’m a criminal, so I don’t want my tax dollars to fund police.” (Yes, criminals pay taxes, too)
I empathize with those parents whose students were underserved by a strained and underfunded system. Children put on wait lists for certain specialty schools is unfortunate. Overcrowded classrooms are also a disservice to students and parents. Public schools that don’t offer special educational services for students with learning disabilities is unconscionable. These examples have one thing in common: public schools lack the resources to meet the needs of today’s students.
There’s a great aphorism used in the building trades that I believe is apropos here:
“Skilled labor isn’t cheap. Cheap labor isn’t skilled.”
The same goes for our public goods. Great public goods aren’t cheap. Cheap public goods aren’t great.
In the spirit of full disclosure, let’s also identify the fact that the students Ms. Gurr is describing and who would be using school vouchers are K-12 students. Florida is NOT ranked #1 in K-12 education. It is #14. Florida fares better than Texas at #37, but to suggest that they got to a higher ranking thanks to successful voucher programs is a classic case of correlation not equaling causation. Arizona’s K-12 system is ranked #48, by the way.[1]
The top ranked K-12 education systems as measured by U.S. News & World Report are: 1) New Jersey, 2) Massachusetts, 3) Connecticut, 4) Vermont, and 5) Illinois. There is a common thread among those top performing K-12 systems, and I assure you, it isn’t that all those states have bone-chilling winters. Of the top 5 performing schools, four of them are in the list of top ten per pupil funding in the country. The outlier, Illinois, is #11 in per pupil funding. Florida and Texas are #41 and #43 respectively in per pupil funding.[2]
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Robert W. Velez, a lecturer in political science at UT-Rio Grande Valley and an Edinburg, Texas, resident. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Velez can be reached by email via: velezmpls@gmail.com.
[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education
[2] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/per-pupil-spending-by-state
