Straight from the Horse's Mouth

State Senator and “Tea Party favorite” Donna Campbell, a person that has never been an educator and who does not have a formal background in public policy creation, thinks she has the answer for how to improve Texas schools. In an editorial she points to a report by economist Arthur Laffer, one of the gurus behind Reagonmics. Apparently, Laffer has cherry picked “study after study” and concluded that, in addition to solving many of the problems facing education, school choice will put “trillions” into the economy. In addition to Laffer, Mrs. Cambell points out that “Almost 87 percent of Texans acknowledge school choice will reduce poverty, and 80 percent of Hispanics believe it will create better opportunities for their families.” Albeit for these facts she does not explain where she obtained this information; even if she had, I'm not sure the reader should be convinced by the credibility of random group of non-experts. Mrs. Cambell points out that Texas spends a lot of money on education but is not very efficient with the money. I'll help Mrs. Cambell and point to a study performed by TASA andTASB which reviewed where all that money goes. It seems that school administrators have a difficult time implementing the various mandates given by the Legislature. Beyond making dubious claims, Mrs. Campbell failed to mention a single downside to school choice. She did not mention which other states have substantial school choice programs. She also didn't explain how children in poor and/or rural areas will be transported to these higher performing non-public schools. She didn't explain how to reconcile the separation of Church and state quagmire of providing tax dollars to parochial schools. Texas can do better, but instead of school choice we should try finding actual education policy experts that actually know what they're doing.

Who's got the golden ticket?

The 84th legislative session has begun.  One of the key issues being discussed is that of school vouchers.  While not a new notion, this issue has gained a lot of steam with the new Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, long having been a supporter of school vouchers.  As the Texas Observer points out, there are some fresh faces in the new push to pass a bill to allow state funding of private education. However, the fundamental premise remains largely unchanged.  Proponents of the proposed bill claim vouchers will save money while improving the overall quality of education available to all students.  Proponents also assert that there is a lot of research supporting these claims.  The author points out that this is not entirely true and, additionally, highlights that one of the masterminds behind the research is Art Laffer (of Reaganomics fame).  While overtly biased against the legislation, the article provides insight into one of the major issues we’ll see in this legislative session.