Superintendent’s Blog- February 2025 Edition
Topic: School Choice/Vouchers
As a superintendent, I’m frequently asked what my thoughts are on school choice and vouchers. While politically, these two terms are being used simultaneously, they really are different concepts. In fact, the term ‘voucher’ had such a negative connotation from previous legislative sessions that it became necessary to call them Educational Savings Accounts (ESA). So, this topic is quite controversial, and I want to share just a few thoughts that are rather neutral from either party line but should be considered by our Texas Legislature.
First, I must provide a little backdrop regarding the legislative body whom we elected. Texas is a big state…larger than many countries…and has the 8th largest economy in the entire world. Approximately 80% of Texas land is rural and 20% is either urban or suburban. Our area (‘our world’) is rural and I tend to draw my conclusions on what is best around me. Great things are happening in rural Texas! However, while 80% of our land is rural, only 20% of our population lives there. Why is this important, because of redistricting, our state law makers, your rural elected State Representatives/State Senators, have a minority of voice in the Texas Capitol. For example, our State Representative covers six counties, while in Harris County alone, there are about 25 State Representatives. So, if a law is proposed that is good for urban areas and bad for rural, we get the short end of the stick.
So, let’s get back to the point, the topic of school choice. I believe in school choice. I believe that parents should be able to choose whether to send their child to the public school in which they reside or choose to homeschool or enroll in a private/charter program. There are some good homeschool and private programs out there, but there are some really bad ones as well. Likewise, there are some really good public schools and some that need a lot of help. In ‘our world’, we have some great school districts that provide an exceptional education and offer a wide variety of programs that produce very successful citizens of this great state. I’m proud to serve such a great, property-poor, rural school district known for SUCCESS.
I’m proud that our district is a ‘school of choice’ by many. In fact, nearly 20% of our student enrollment are not district residents. Many move to our district for the purpose of their children attending school here, hence property values skyrocket. Some can’t move here, and we allow them to transfer pending space and other factors. This type of school choice is nothing new, as it has been described in Chapter 25 of the Texas Education Code for as long as I can remember…last amended in 1995. By statute, we can charge a tuition fee for such, but no more than the law’s ‘formula’ allows to provide adequate funding per student. But even then, this can get very expensive for parents. Our most recent calculation for maximum tuition was nearly $3000 per child. It’s difficult to afford, so our district only charges $1000 per family regardless of the number of children in the household and our full-time employees’ children attend free. We receive NO additional state funding for these students to compensate for the lost local portion of revenue from property taxes (i.e. where tuition is calculated).
What about vouchers? Well, SB 2 has already passed through the Texas Senate and landed in the laps of our State Representatives to tangle with. The concept of vouchers, or ESAs, is a plan to redirect state tax revenue to help parents pay for some of the cost of sending their children to a private or parochial school or to assist parents in paying for costs associated with homeschooling. We can and should debate the legal arguments, constitutional concerns, equity issues, and even accountability fairness with this system. While I certainly have my opinion on this specific issue, I want to direct my focus on just one targeted area.
So, let me pose this question. What about parents who want to send their child to another PUBLIC SCHOOL of THEIR CHOICE? Yes, parents do choose other public school systems as their preferred option for many reasons. Why can’t the state pick up the ‘tuition tab’ if they are really interested in supporting successful public school systems? It is certainly NOT included in SB2 and to my knowledge, not one single state legislator has considered this. So, is it really about ‘school choice’?
For this blog episode, I certainly don’t have time to discuss the discrepancies in the definitions of ‘fully funding schools’ and ‘adequately funding schools’, as this would require more of a book. However, our district is not even ‘fully’ funded based on the number of students enrolled. If it were, we would gain approximately $1M in new money, and for a small rural district, that is huge.
As I stated earlier, there are some schools that need help. But for goodness sake, if rules are made to accommodate necessary changes there, don’t punish public schools that are doing well.
It does not matter what side of the political aisle one is sitting on. If supporting public education is important, this issue should be included in any battle over ESAs.
Until next time, please pray for guidance and wisdom among our state legislature.
God bless!
Donny Webb, Superintendent
Hudson ISD
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