Vouchers

This would be vouchers – part très, so I thought I’d start my page for (I mean against) vouchers. A bit of a coo for keeping vouchers out of the mix. As statesman.com reported on Wednesday’s meeting with the Texas Education Agency’s hearing on the controversial dropout recovery plan.

Education Commissioner Robert Scott, who was not in attendance, has said repeatedly that this grant would not be a voucher program because it does not give money to parents to shop around for a private school nor does it take money from school districts.

Patrick’s point was echoed by a statement from three legislators who served on the conference committee in 2007 that negotiated HB 2237, a high school improvement bill that opened the door for this grant program.

HB 2237 passed both the House and the Senate with only dissenting vote, wrote Sen. Royce West, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, and Rep. Scott Hochberg, all Democrats.

“Rarely do we see such consensus surrounding legislation. Clearly, the will of the legislature to help address dropout rates in Texas is strong. Equally strong however, is our decade-long stance against the use of taxpayer funds to pay private school tuition. Commissioner Scott’s proposed rule directly contradicts the will of the 80th Texas Legislature, which refused to pass any measure that would allow tax dollars to be used to pay tuition at private and religious schools.”