In Rio Grande Valley there are 65 failing School Districts
By Christopher Gambini & Rafa Bejar
For years Texas public education has been riled with low graduation rates low test scores and failing schools. School choice offers a welcome answer. School choice is a conservative liberty-loving economically shrewd solution to our education system.
Above all this education reform would provide relief to Rio Grande Valley Texans.
Too many children in low-income families many of whom are minorities are stuck in failing public schools in underfunded school districts and are forced into subpar classrooms. Consider the following:
- Out of the 918651 students attending failing schools in Texas 70 are Hispanic or African-American
- 79 are Economically Disadvantaged
- In the Rio Grande Valley alone there are 65 failing School Districts
In the south Texas Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD for example there are 11 failing schools according to the Texas Education Agencys Public Education Grant List for 2017-18.
The numbers speak for themselves
Texas minorities and those in the Valley in particular are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to public education. Worse unless a family has the resources to move homeschool their children
or send them to private schools they often are relegated to a failing public school and provided with no better option.
One exception is to attend a public charter school. But with more than 140000 kids on charter school waiting lists in Texas and only about 40 charter schools throughout the Valley their chances of attending one of these charter institutions are dismal.
Unless economically disadvantaged families have the means to move into a better school district or pay costly tuition which is often out of their financial reach families are forced to send their children to a school near where they live whether or not the school is meeting the needs of their children.
Consequently it is usually well-off families that can choose and find a good education for their children while the disadvantaged students are left without school choice.
In the 2017 legislative session however Texas House and Senate members have the chance to embrace school choice and give parents the financial resources to find their children an adequate education.
Texas Legislators have a rare opportunity this Session
Texas legislators can provide Education Savings Accounts or a tax credit scholarship to Texas parents and empower them to choose private school to homeschool take online courses provide tutoring or therapies or any combination thereof which will best suit their childrens unique educational needs.
As Gov. Greg Abbott said in his State of the State Address on recently:
Parents not government are best positioned to make decisions about their childs education. Parents should be empowered to choose the school thats best for their child."
The bottom line is that students in the Rio Grande Valley and across Texas who are stuck in poverty and failing public schools would have a way out of their trying circumstances.
Students in failing schools underperform in reading and math; this is the all-too-common narrative. Its not that these students are incapable or lack talent; rather they deserve an opportunity to thrive in an environment that best suits their needs. Their potential is going untapped at numerous failing public
schools across the state.
School choice will give these students an opportunity to get a better education whereby they can harness their academic and intellectual potential.
Gov. Abbott is right: Every child should have a chance to succeed in life."
School choice is proven to work by improving academic achievement among its participants. According to
EdChoice (formerly the Friedman Foundation) out of 18 studies 14 found that students benefit academically from school choice.
These studies were conducted throughout the past 19 years the earliest being published in 1998 and the latest in 2016. Time and again this research along with other studies has shown school choice
to increase scores in core subject areas.
School choice will help public schools all around
Another EdChoice report illustrated that among 33 studies 31 demonstrated a positive effect on academic outcomes at public schools. These studies were published throughout a 15-year period and consistently have provided the same positive conclusion.
School choice is truly a win-win solution. Students and families all over Texas will benefit from improved academic outcomes not only school choice participants but also public school students.
And as part of this opportunity to improve educational outcomes for Texas children parents across the Valley finally will be able to choose the best education for their children.
Christopher Gambini is a research associate and Rafael Rafa" Bejar is a policy adviser with the Texas Public Policy Foundations Center for Education Freedom in Austin.
