There is no win-win with school vouchers

Our Bexar County delegation is in Austin for a special legislative session where funding for public schools is being held captive in an effort to divert $500 million to private schools in the form of vouchers.

Prior to my election to City Council, I served as a high school math teacher in the community I now represent. My decisions on the dais are shaped by the challenges my students and their families navigate on a daily basis.

This year, in response to the national teacher shortage, I returned to the classroom part time. Teaching is central to who I am and how I live my politics. In my experience, public schools are the heart of our neighborhoods and the foundation of equity through education.

Senate Bill 1 proposes a $500 million fund for parents to transfer $8,000 per year, per student to private schools. This means 62,500 students in Texas may receive a voucher each year. With more than 5.1 million students in Texas, a little more than 1% of Texas students would be afforded the “choice” state leadership promises.

This money would be better utilized to meet the existing needs of teachers and students rather than divert funds to private schools that would benefit just a few.

Make no mistake, the families who will be offered this “choice” will be those that can already afford to send their children to private schools. These vouchers will do irreparable harm to our city’s most vulnerable communities by reallocating millions of dollars from our most needy campuses to subsidize private schools that demonstrate little track record of success.

With San Antonio experiencing rapid gentrification and the displacement of families, student numbers have dwindled. The influx of charter schools has caused further harm, forcing working-class families to choose between investing in our neighborhood schools or sending their children to a charter school that promises vast opportunity, but instead pushes many of our students further to the margins.

A school voucher program would deal a near-fatal blow to public school districts that are struggling to keep schools open with lower enrollment and an unsustainable cost-perstudent ratio. However, the families impacted by school closures are precisely the ones who depend on our public schools for an accessible and quality education.

I find it disturbing, unnerving and puzzling that Rep. Barbara Gervin-hawkins, whose district includes San Antonio’s East Side, is willing to compromise with Republicans to defund our public school system at a time when public schools in our shared district are hurting the most.

There is no win-win with vouchers. Siphoning any funds away from our public schools in their hour of greatest need is not a solution to the education gaps our communities and nation are facing and will only worsen the gap for underresourced schools.

Private school vouchers are harmful to students, schools and the teachers and staff who are dedicated to our future. Our leaders should continue to represent our community’s opposition to private school vouchers and say no to school vouchers in any form.