Which parents matter?
Regarding “Abbott touts private school voucher plan to crowd of 300 in Conroe,” (March 1): It appears that Gov. Greg Abbott’s intent is to shift taxpayer money from public education to help pay for private school for any student, including those whose parents currently send their kids to private school and have the means to continue doing so. Rather than giving all parents a “choice,” this would amount to subsidizing families who are already fortunate enough to have a choice at the expense of many who do not.
And who is to say that this would not be an opportunity for private schools to raise their fees and benefit from the additional funds available?
Abbott also claims that parents complain about the “woke agenda” being taught in public schools. Imagine the chagrin of parents seeing their tax money diverted from their own kids’ public education to support the religious agendas of schools promoting ideals those parents do not share. Schools administered by certain religious organizations that are not only exempt from taxes, but also may be mired in scandal, perhaps involving abuse of children.
When Abbott says “parents matter,” which parents does he mean? Apparently the parents that matter most are those whose educational aspirations for their kids are most aligned with his own personal preferences.
Maureen Wharton, Houston
Regarding “With private school voucher plan, Gov. Abbott sets his sights at target Perry and Bush missed,” (Feb. 27): Greg Abbott, who has refused to help save children endangered by Texas’ “guns, guns everywhere” policies, is now traveling the state trying to sell a school vouchers program that will further damage the children in our public schools.
Before schools were integrated, parents paying tuition to private schools never dreamed of asking taxpayers to subsidize their children’s private education. The entire vouchers movement was born to help parents who had jerked their children out of newly integrated schools and put them in private “segregation academies.”
We should not be fooled by Abbott’s claim that vouchers today are different. The motivations behind the movement
have not changed. If we want public schools to improve, they need more funding, not less. It is outrageous for parents who choose to educate their children privately to demand that we taxpayers help pay the cost. It was indefensible in 1960, and it’s indefensible now. Patricia Bernstein, Bellaire
I am in favor of school vouchers. As a person now without school-age children I still have to pay school district taxes, as do many others like me. When I had a school-aged child I sent them to private school, which was a sacrifice I chose to make as a single parent. Again, my tax dollars went to the public schools. It’s time to have the money follow the child.
Diane Neville, Spring
I can see no justification for using taxpayer funds to subsidize private school for a chosen few. Should parents have a choice? Of course. They can send their kid to any private school they want; they just shouldn’t force me and the other taxpayers of the state to pay for it. Our son graduated from a public high school, but our daughter graduated from St. Agnes, a private Catholic high school. We paid for it ourselves; no other taxpayers had to pay for it. If taxpayers are required to fund education (which is certainly a valid use of taxes), it should be to fund the public education of all students. Tom Hix, Houston