State of many issues
Regarding “Four main takeaways from Gov. Greg Abbott’s State of the State Address,” (Feb. 16): If Abbott is fully informed about school choice vouchers, he will include the other side of the story. It is school choice — if you can afford it. Houston Independent School District spends about $10,000 per student each year. Assuming that, at the most, 100 percent of that is refunded to parents to pay for private school, let’s look at how much private school costs.
At the high school level, according to their websites: St. John’s High School tuition is $34,170; Kinkaid High School tuition is $32,050; St. Thomas Episcopal School is $27,275; St. Thomas High School is $21,900; and Duchesne Academy is $28,850.
Ergo, if you choose among some of the highest regarded private upper schools in Houston, your choice will cost somewhere around $29,000. That assumes you have only one child.
Logically, the result of Abbott’s school voucher idea is to (1) take money away from public schools at the expense of those students whose parents cannot afford to pay around $29,000 per year and (2) subsidize those parents who already can and do afford to pay the cost of private schools. At one time we valued education for all our children as a social necessity for a viable democracy. Now we are considering valuing it only if you can pay more than someone else can.
Stanley P. Santire, Houston
In the Chronicle's front-page story on Abbott’s State of the State address, the governor is quoted as declaring that homeowners’ suffering over property tax inequity must be fixed. He offers throwing millions of dollars at the problem in a one-time effort to that end. The only real “fix” for this problem is an overhauling of the system that predicates the homeowners’ tax burden on the current onerous plan of basing a tax burden on the home’s current perceived value. The only true fix, in my view, would be to tax the homeowner on the amount of the original mortgage, not on some ridiculous pie-inthe-sky figure the home might bring if sold at today’s ballooning rate.
Harold Young, Cypress
In Abbott’s State of the State speech, he repeated exaggerations about judges continuing to release repeat offenders on bond, especially in Harris County. He refers negatively to Democratic judges, as did Republican candidates during the last election.
There was a lawsuit brought against the judicial system because judges were not following the law about ordering high enough bonds to arrested individuals.
They are now following the laws that Abbott’s fellow Republicans voted into place. Our state constitution says all arrested individuals are entitled to a bond except in extreme cases of capital murder or if they meet certain criteria for repeat violent offenses. If Abbott wants to blame someone, he needs to blame his own party’s legislators and have the laws changed. Until then, he needs to stop making such broad accusations.
Bill Moore, Houston