“welfare class”
Exactly WHAT does that mean? Who are they? Class-ism ?
“teachers will not be replaced due to lack of funds.”
Texas schools are funded with property taxes – hence so many Independent School Districts (ISDs). People move, homes get foreclosed on, property values drop, and school funds drop. So you spiral into trying to do more or the same with less and you end up doing less with less.
“That is one reason to push for vouchers”
The voucher system proposed in Texas was NOT free money. Basically, you take YOUR kid and YOUR money out of the school system and go to another. What happens?
Well, the already beleaguered ISDs will suffer by losing MORE money. Your voucher money comes out of THEIR money – one for one – you get $2000, the ISD you live in LOSES $2000. Sure fire way to make that ISD go DOWN in quality.
You go to the local private school or another ISD with better schools. The private school has MORE applicants…and supply and demand being what it is, they RAISE tuition to what the traffic will bear. Your voucher becomes all but meaningless. The ISD you try to go to has a waiting list too…they can afford to accept only the best – so they stay OK but all but the brightest students end up not having a place there….So, if you can’t afford the private school, the kid is not in the top academically (or- it is Texas so – they can’t play football), you end up back at the original school that others luckier than you basically looted…and your kid ends up with an even worse situation.
Oh yeah, vouchers will work just fine.
How about no voucher but a one for one federal tax credit for education (like your tuition is deductable) ? That STILL reduces federal funds…
Do the math on tuition. The numbers I have seen bandied about for the vouchers is in the $2000 to $3000 per year per student range. In Houston, the least expensive private school for k-8 runs over $5000 per year. For 9-12, that number jumps up to $10,000 per year. Now, if the private schools all of a sudden have MORE students applying (ie. the more expensive schools in Houston are more expensive due to reputation, having a waiting list, an admissions criteria that is stricter, and charge what the traffic will bear.)
So, if the applications go up and the people in the school already are paying $5000 per year and these people now are getting $2000 from their voucher, the tuition in the first year will probably go up to $6000 – you THINK you are getting a tuition cut of $1000. But the next couple of years, it goes up…and pretty soon, you are back to the $5000 (or more PLUS your $2000 voucher.