3.20.23

“Possible Major Problem with School Choice, Voucher Bills in Tex. Lege”
By Donna Garner

A pink background with three white question marks.

This is the question many people ask of me: “Donna, what do you think about the school choice bills up before the Texas Lege right now?”

Please feel free to share my comments with any and all if you so please.

To find the school choice bills (voucher bills, etc.), please go to the Texas Legislature Online (https://capitol.texas.gov/) where you can search for bills by word/phrase or bill number.

Below are the education bills up for public hearings in front of the Senate and House Education Committees:

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE – HEARING ON 3.22.23:

SB 9

SB 8

SJR 29

SB 176

SB 960

SB 2354

HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE – HEARING 3.21.23

HB 166

HB 900

HB 1605

HB 1614

HB 1662

HB 2162

HB 2484

HB 2729

HB 2929

HB 2923

BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THESE BILLS, PLEASE BE SURE TO GO THROUGH EACH AND CHECK ON ANY “ACCOUNTABILITY” MEASURES.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE “A” WORD

I totally support parental choice. All parents should have the right and the responsibility to choose the best educational environment for their children.

However, the MAIN thing that people need to consider very seriously about any school choice or voucher bill is the issue of ACCOUNTABILITY. What is built into the bill language regarding accountability? 

ACCOUNTABILITY means how will schools be measured objectively to make sure their students are indeed advancing in their academic proficiency? All parents, of course, need to know that very important information before making their decision about where to place their children.

Unfortunately, this is the problem: The entity (e.g., leftists, Dems, federal government, USDOE, Biden, etc.) that determines the objective “measuring stick” (e.g., College Board AP tests, SAT, ACT, etc.) ends up determining the curriculum because “whatever gets tested gets taught.”

In actuality, it is not a bad thing that “whatever gets tested gets taught” if the objective measuring stick contains Type #1 questions because that means students will be taught Type #1 curriculum! 

However, we definitely do not want the objective measuring stick to be Type #2. We need to make sure the “objective” measuring stick is indeed objective and not subjective.

THOSE WHO EVALUATE CONTROL STUDENTS’ SCORES

This is where such things as Type #2 portfolios, projects, and other subjectively scored assessments must never be used as the measuring stick lest the entities (e.g., leftists, Dems, federal government, USDOE, Biden, etc.) should control student outcomes by indoctrinating students into CRT, LGBTQ, diversity/equity/inclusion, social justice agenda, etc.

No scorers’ or evaluators’ OPINIONS should be a part of the final measuring stick’s results.

The STAAR tests at the present time are composed of mostly objective, Type #1 questions. In Texas, the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education adopt the curriculum standards (TEKS) that determine the questions on the STAAR tests. 

ELAR, Social Studies, and Science are presently considered to be Type #1. 

Sad to say, the Math TEKS are polluted with Type #2 process standards which were placed secretly into the grade-level Introductions the night before the final SBOE vote.

The STAAR tests in ELAR/Social Studies/Science are basically solid Type #1 but not so for Math.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS OUTSIDE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

We must remember that private schools have their own accountability systems which hopefully are built totally upon Type #1. 

If those Type #1 private schools (or other educational settings) take a penny of public dollars, they will lose their autonomy because strings will always be attached to those dollars. That means “accountability” which could change the Type #1 curriculum (that those private school students are presently being taught) to Type #2.

To get the public dollars, these private schools (or other educational settings) would have to change their curriculum to meet the accountability requirements.

TWO-ALL IMPORTANT EDUCATION ARTICLES

These are the two articles on my website DonnaGarner.org which I believe are the most important for the public to read, study, and understand. Please go through them carefully when trying to decide which if any of the school choice/voucher bills you might decide to support in the Texas lege.

1.17.23 – “The Only Answer for America: Type #1 for All Classrooms -- Cannot Be Mixed – Just Like Oil and Water” – by Donna Garner -- https://donnagarner.org/only-two-types-of-education-type-1-vs-type-2-cannot-mix-oil-water-4-27-22/

8.31.22 -- “Teaching the Public To Recognize Good from Bad Curriculum Standards and Curriculum” -- By Donna Garner -- https://donnagarner.org/teaching-the-public-to-recognize-good-from-bad-curriculum-standards-and-curriculum/

SUPER ARTICLE BY CAROLE HAYNES, PhD – PUBLISHED ON 3.20.23

Please read below what Carole Haynes, PhD sent out today. This article is excellent. She explains very clearly the danger of allowing “the nose of the camel in the tent of education.” Remember that the camel’s nose is the ACCOUNTABILITY requirement.

These bills are the "nose of the camel in the tent of education."

ALERT – School Choice Testimony March 22 

Texas State Capitol - Education Savings Account (ESA)

Bills: SB 2354, SB 176, SB 8

1. Public testimony for education (only in-person) – Wednesday, March 22, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. in Room E1.028 at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Plan for 3 minutes of testimony. It’s customary to give copies of your testimony to each of the 13 committee members.

2. Call your Texas State Senator. Because their staff logs the number of telephone calls and the message, calling is very effective. Find the name of your state senator and the telephone number at this link. https://www.texastribune.org/directory/#txsenate

PURPOSE: School choice bills should not contain government restrictions if they really are to provide education freedom for parents to educate their children as they wish. This is a socialist and a U.N. goal to control private and home schools.

ALL of thse bills are the “the nose of the camel in the tent of education.”

(For further information on SB 176, check out my article that appeared in World Net Daily: “School Choice Schemes Play into U.N. Goals for Control”)

School choice is now the hot topic and Republican lawmakers are jumping on that bandwagon, if only because they fear they won’t be re-elected otherwise. Yet they seem to be more concerned about the appearance of passing a school choice bill – just any bill that provides a few schillings for public school exit – and less concerned about what the bill actually accomplishes or doesn’t accomplish.

In Texas, there are at least 15 school choice bills -- “parent empowerment”-- that have been filed and all contain restrictions that will expand government reach to private schools, private tutors, curriculum, instructional materials, education service organizations, and more.

In a nutshell, here is what the bills include:

  • Only public school students are eligible for any of the funding. No current private school students are eligible.
  • If a Texas private school accepts a student using ESA funds, that school MUST become accredited – government control will be expanded. Currently private schools in Texas are not required to be accredited. There is NO proof that accreditation makes a school a better education provider. Hillsdale is not accredited and neither are excellent private schools in Texas.
  • Private tutors must be licensed and certified – government control. There is NO proof that certification makes one a better teacher. All public school teachers are certified and most have attended left wing teacher colleges for certification coursework. Yet the student academic achievement level is at the bottom. What does make a difference is whether the teacher has a deep knowledge of the subject matter.
  • Vendors and education service companies must be government pre-approved. This includes online curriculum providers and companies selling instructional materials including textbooks. The government will decide what resources that private, home, and Christian school parents can access if they want to use government money. Government will continue to dictate what children will be reading and learning.

Don’t let Texas Republican lawmakers tell you that using school choice funds is “voluntary.” That is not the point. ALL of thse bills are the “the nose of the camel in the tent of education” that will bring state, and eventually federal control, over ALL education choices. One by one, private schools will become accredited. All private tutors eventually will have to become certified and licensed. There are many excellent tutors who will walk away rather than put up with the government nonsense of certification and licensing. Why should a vendor have to be certified to show that their materials are worthy?

It appears that Republican lawmakers – even conservatives – don’t understand or are ignoring the conseqeuences of their bills. For example, in the last session, parents were demanding that schools get rid of Social and Emotional Learning. So what did Texas lawmakers do? They passed SB123 that integrated SEL into the education code and required the Texas State Board of Education to integrate it into the curriculum standards.

Because of two bills by federal lawmakers in 1959 and 1965, we have massive federal government overreach in education. Although lawmakers were warned that these were “the nose of the camel in the tent,” they ignored sage advice about the consequences and listened to the socialists who wanted control over education. From the bill in 1965 came No Child Left Behind and Every Student Succeeds Act and much more.

Stay tuned for my Haynes Report Podcast on school choice that will address this in greater detail.

(BTW, Texas actually had school choice in the late 1800s without government restrictions.)

 

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For more commentaries: http://drcarolehhaynes.com

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