Ft Worth Times

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) is advocating for school choice in Texas, citing data that shows a majority of Texans who agree that school choice will not hurt public education.

The main argument against education freedom bills in Texas is that rural public schools will suffer. TPPF claims the opposite, writing on Twitter that a majority of respondents say school choice programs would improve public education.

TPPF tweeted, "75% of Republicans and almost half of Democrats are supportive of Education Savings Accounts. By a nearly 2:1 ratio, more respondents agreed that school choice would improve public education, not hurt it," the post stated.

Supporters of school choice and education savings accounts (ESAs) say such policies encourage competition and keep public schools from failing, citing the failures of public schools as a major motivating factor in why parents look for other options. According to TPPF's "Next Generation Campaign Initiative," TPPF wants to help Texans achieve self-sufficiency and prosperity by improving access to quality education, skills training, and job opportunities. To achieve this, the campaign proposes reforms such as putting parents in charge of their child's education, expanding charter schools, aligning funding for technical training with careers, improving affordability of post-secondary education, and enhancing higher education accreditation, according to a release by TPFF. 

TPPF also said parents should have the final say in their child's education and that Texas should make school curricula more transparent and accountable for the quality of education they provide.

In a University of Houston poll, 62% of Texans living in rural areas are supportive of some form of school choice voucher option, and 53% of Texans are in favor of school-choice vouchers, the Lone Star Standard reported.

The Texas Legislature is considering Senate Bill 8, which would provide ESA to eligible families, the Forest Country News reported. The bill clarified that school districts with fewer than 20,000 students would be "held harmless" and be protected from losing enrollment. 

“Educating the next generation of Texans is the most fundamental responsibility we have, and I authored Senate Bill 8 to place parents, not government, squarely in the center of the decisions for their children. Giving parents the power to determine the best school for their child will encourage competition and innovation, ensuring that each Texas student has the opportunity to succeed,” Sen. Brandon Creighton, author of the bill, said in a release on the Texas Senate website.

Jason Bedrick of the Heritage Foundation wrote that ESAs allow families to use state funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, online courses, special needs therapy, and more. Public support for ESAs is at all-time high due to concerns over school shutdowns, mask mandates, and "politicization of the classroom," he wrote. In a recent poll, 70% of Texans and 77% of parents of school-aged children support ESAs, Bedrick wrote.

Not everyone supports ESAs, however. Teacher's unions and their allies are trying to prevent alternatives to the traditional district school system, and while opponents argue that school choice programs would harm rural district schools, Bedrick wrote that ESAs and other programs would expand educational opportunities for rural families and improve the performance of rural district schools.