Thousands of school choice activists will descend upon Austin, today, showing that a move to fix the public school system in Texas is gaining traction.
"Five years ago, we had about 500 folks," organizer Randan Stenhauser tells News Radio 1200 WOAI. "Today, we will have 4,000 people at the state capitol to show their support for school choice."
Efforts in past Texas legislative sessions, which have focused on a voucher system, have fallen flat. This year, the effort is to put in place what are called education savings accounts.
Parents who pull their kids from public school receive cash they can spend on private schooling or homeschooling.
"We want to take the power out of the hands of the government and give parents the freedom on how to educate their child," she expalins.
A non-profit group that promotes school choice, EdChoice, asked Texas private schools about their capacity to accept new students.
The results show at least 31,000 open seats available in Texas, with a projected estimate closer to 127,000 seats.
“As we’ve found in other states, there’s plenty of room to grow private school attendance, and we know from our past research that parents overwhelmingly would choose private schools if they were able,” said Drew Catt, the survey author and EdChoice Director of State Research and Policy Analysis.
But opponents say drawing precious few resources away from public schools will hurt the vast majority of Texas children.
“There is only one state education budget, and Texans cannot afford to pay for two systems of education -- one for 93 percent of our children who attend public schools, and another to provide an entitlement to a few affluent families that want to send their kids to a private school," Charles Luke, coordinator of the Coalition for Public Schools, said at a rally this week.Texas legislators have filed voucher proposals in every legislative session since 1995, but all of them have failed to become law.
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