The school vouchers fight is on again.
Over the past 30 years the left has developed ways to confuse this issue. We are likely to hear some of them next session.
The good news is, after 30 years of tilling, planting, and watering, states around the country are entering a season of school voucher harvest.
Louisiana is pursuing school choice much more aggressively than Texas. In truth, school voucher goals for the Texas 83rd Legislature are modest.
Still, the cause is picking up momentum.
The left is likely to take the debate down many rabbit trails. There are a few things that should be kept in mind throughout the debate.
- Schools and school districts should answer to parents, not Austin bureaucrats. In our current system, taxes for school funding are routed through Austin. Austin bureaucrats dispense money to schools. That means they are in charge. Under school vouchers, those taxes will be re-routed back through parents, who will choose which school to pay. Schools and school districts begin making policy to please parents, not bureaucrats.
- Conditions for voucher-worthiness must not require liberal curriculum. Requirements should only protect against fraud. Liberals see states falling to vouchers one by one, and with it their educational hegemony. They know it will continue. Their new game is to try to make liberal curriculum a condition for schools receiving vouchers. Liberals believe Texans should only be able to use their own money to educate their children in ways liberals approve of.
- Study the actors. Pay attention to the people on both sides of the argument. What are the common threads in everything else they support? This will tell you most of what you need to know to guide you through the debate.
Conservatives are starting to gain the upper hand in this fight. Conservatives must be diligent to ensure the prize – school vouchers – retains its integrity.