Conisha Butler, left, works with her son, Kameron, 10, on his virtual speech therapy appointment in Houston. Butler applied for Texas school vouchers for her children this year; her son has disabilities and she hoped to send him to a private school next year.
Now that Texas has sent education savings account award letters to more than 102,000 students around the state, it’s worth looking at the results to understand what actually happened.
Here is the data: At least 79% of the kids who received awards so far come from low-income families making $66,000 or less in income for a family of four. The remaining 21% of awardees are entirely from families in which a child has a disability. Even the highest-income earners in this set are not wealthy. These are people earning 200%-500% of the federal poverty line. So the highest-earning awardees came from a family with a disabled child and earns no more than $165,000 a year.
Experts have been quick to tell us how this somehow marks a failure for a pilot program the state paid for without removing any funding from the traditional public school system.
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The criticisms fall in a few different categories.
First is the idea that the awards won’t cover the full cost of private school tuition. Here is how the dollars break down: For families with disabled students, the average award was about $16,000. For non-disabled students going to a private school, it was $10,474. Many private schools charge less than $10,000 in tuition, especially those affiliated with faith communities. And even if an award doesn’t cover the entire cost of education, that money is still an enormous help to families sacrificing to provide what they believe is the best education option for their children.
Another criticism is that families of disabled children will be unable to find or afford schools with adequate services or services similar to those offered in public schools. It’s true that public schools, especially in urban areas, have strong services for an array of disabilities. But shouldn’t we trust parents to make the decisions they think are in the best interest of their child? These are often people who have been managing a disability for years and who know what is and isn’t on offer in their communities.
The most salient criticism is that the too few kids who received awards come from failing public schools. According to the state comptroller, 43% of awardees were previously enrolled in public schools. (This data doesn’t include pre-K, kindergarten and first grade applicants.) The state should do a better job of ensuring that parents with children in low-rated public schools are aware of this program. But it’s hard to fault awards provided to parents who are already making a financial sacrifice to try to find the best option for their child. A low-income family already paying some or all of a tuition bill deserves at least as good a chance as anyone else.
It’s also worth looking at the racial breakdown of awardees, another point of criticism during the application period. The number of white awardees was 38%, slightly less than the state’s 40% white population. Black awardees made up 13%, more than the state’s 12% of the population. Hispanic awardees did not mirror their population at 27% of awards versus 40% of the population. But the state lists 12% of awardees as multi-racial, and it’s unclear what their exact background is.
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So families that received these awards come from diverse backgrounds, are majority low-income and/or have a child with a documented disability. Experts can tell us how bad all of this is for these families and for Texas, but isn’t it reasonable to give the families here a little benefit of the doubt about their own children?
We believe in traditional public schools, and we believe Dallas ISD in particular has made important strides in expanding choice within the district, in implementing reforms to ensure better teaching and administration, and in developing a top-notch curriculum. It’s been a national leader in showing how urban schools with a majority low-income population can demand excellence.
But what’s happening in Dallas ISD does not mean that Texas shouldn’t continue to improve education options for children at every income level.
Here are a few other numbers to contemplate: Last year, 55% of Texas public school students did not meet state standards in math, and 45% didn’t meet them in reading. Less than 50% of kids from economically disadvantaged homes met state standards in every category measured.
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Too many of our children are not being served by traditional public schools around the state. Thousands of families across the state have made deep personal sacrifices to get their children into private schools.
Any voucher program needs guardrails. The results from schools that accept state money need to be measured and compared to outcomes at traditional public schools. Schools that underperform should not be part of the program.
But doing nothing while so many young people are undereducated is not an option. We need to support and reform our traditional public schools, and we need more choices for families across the board.
Have thoughts about this?Send a letter to the editor using our letters form or email letters@dallasnews.com. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.