School choice is a move of resurgence coming forward that seeks to enable steps of equitable opportunity for parents to dedicate and choose the necessary educational path and institution they see fit for their specific child(ren), while allocating resources (via re-proportioning of state taxes be it property or sales or dedicated budget lines from the state) to help them accomplish their direction set out to achieve. Currently in Texas, the legislative branch just passed a budget and spending bill that has separate line items for school choice ($1 billion allocated) and public education ($5 billion additional funds to the current budget amount of $85.33 billion), with the given additions to be used to support teacher pay increase. See TEA Funding Report HERE.
States vary between what is known as limited school choice to where there is a set amount of funds designated for students to utilize who fit economic or disability criteria. Or, universal school choice, which supports any student seeking enrollment in alternative accredited schools outside of the public sphere the opportunity and funding to do so, regardless of economic status or disability.
Funds are distributed in a variety of manners, such as the utilization of tax credits or education savings accounts (ESA). Currently Texas is looking at utilizing ESA’s, where money would be distributed to schools through the state comptroller’s office based on students enrolled and applied through the school choice program.
How many states have some form of school choice offering in the U.S.?
There are currently 34 states with a designated school choice policy in place, with Tennessee being the most recent to adopt and pass a school choice bill for their state. Further, there are several surveys and data sets out there that will rank states based on educational standards, test scores, enrollment, and other factors. There are many different types of statistics out there, so we encourage everyone to view statistics passed with a diligent eye. In many of these rankings, Texas consistently ranks near the middle of the road with educational standards and achievement. A comprehensive survey compiled by US News has Texas ranked #29 among the US states for educational standing, and specifically #28 for Pre-K-12 instruction. What is interesting to view in the standing of school choice is that of the 28 states ahead of us in this poll, 18 of the 28 have a form of school choice instituted within their state educational support. Further in this poll, Florida and Utah were both ranked near the top of the ranks in educational standing and both states have a robust school choice program in effect. To see which states have legislative school choice in motion and which one’s don’t check out this School Choice Map for more information.
How does school choice benefit the community as a whole?
One of the biggest factors proponents of school choice present is the allowance of competitive opportunity to inhabit the educational arena. Just like the various selections of coffee shops, auto mechanics, barbers, and retail services reside within a community, there also exists a wide variety and set of approaches to educational services. As with any free market system, competition allows for creativity, excellence, and flourishing to rise to the top, and those unwilling or unable to meet the needs of a community or customer base quickly deteriorate or dissolve. Advocates for school choice believe that the opening of the educational service market will allow for all institutions to provide quality service and better their approaches to education as a whole.
One size does not fit all. Even in the public education system, there has been a clear back track from a one size fits all approach to education where not too long ago there was major push and pressure to force all kids into the collegiate stream. Forcing students into paths and systems that they were never wired to be in or desired to be in, quickly showed burdensome factors for schools and a deviation from this path and openness to other educational outcomes was enacted to include vocational and career-based education, as well as college readiness. The same is true for the primary and secondary education systems as well. Forcing all students through the same system and not equitably supporting others that exist can be a detriment to the health and development of a community and its younger generational citizens, further stunting whole wide community development and enrichment. School choice opens the door for every student to be reached and developed appropriately and effectively by allowing multiple educational systems to co-exist and operate to reach the entirety of the community. Currently of the 33 states who hold school choice policy (not including Tennessee who just passed their bill), no state has ever repealed their policy from their legislative budgeting, with some states having it in motion for decades.
Better educational systems and choices hold a snowball effect. When there is quality and top-notch education taking place, this becomes an attraction for families to reside near and flock to. The allowance of school choice and establishing of a free market educational service program, could easily be the catalyst to further the growth and development of communities across the state, which in turn will force a move for each community, town, city and area in the state of Texas to facilitate not just quality educational services, but improved quality industry, residential, civic, economic, and spiritual support as well.
What are those opposed to school choice saying?
The tendency with large discussion issues, such as school choice, is to want to swing the pendulum from one extreme to the other. Right now, especially through the avenue of social media, there is a lot of one-sided and ultimatum rhetoric spouted off when it comes to a widespread topic, such as school choice in Texas. We encourage there to be a place where questions are asked, data is utilized and analyzed, and conversations can be held within each community, and that sentiment is held in the correct filter so that clarity can be accomplished on stances. Standing in all or nothing mentalities, and ultimatum-based decisions, can detract from clearer paths of cooperation and necessary steps of progress together. We hope these conversations, if able to be held appropriately, will better unite our communities, rather than divide.
Common Arguments Against School Choice:
School Choice will take money away from public schools – Many public schools are advocating with the state to step away from attendance-based funding to enrollment-based funding. Enrollment-based funding is how most private schools operate. Attendance-based funding is one of the revenue streams the public districts hold through the state, and they are given funds based on the students present each day. The argument is that less students means less funds. However, the historical data shows in the other states which have implemented school choice that although there are slight moves in attendance and enrollment, there is not a significant enrollment fluctuation to show that this is a legitimate argument. Further, the funding currently running through the state budget has school choice funding and public education funding in different buckets, and public funding is projected near a $90 billion budget line, compared to a $1 billion dollar budget line to school choice. That’s a 90:1 ratio.
Private schools are not held accountable for educational standards – To see a complete answer to this, please review the “How are private schools held accountable?” tab on this page. In summary, school choice measures instituted will call for school options to be accredited through an appropriate and credible accreditation agency that hold robust educational and operating standards, just as TEA does for the public sector. These standards not only ensure rigorous curriculum and academic standards, but also call for other measures of accountability such as stringent fiscal responsibility, qualified staff to be employed, and proper leadership and school culture dynamics to be in place to support the day to day operation of the school, to name a few.
Schools will lose their autonomy – Private schools typically create and abide by their own admissions standards, whereas public education must receive and accept most students that seek enrollment with their districts (there are exceptions). One side of this view creates a narrative that private schools will refuse to service students with high disability, special needs, or academic/behavioral support. At times this might be the case depending on the resources and staffing available. However, there are private schools specifically set up to serve students fitting these academic challenges, and more and more private schools are beginning to allocate and dedicate budgetary lines to provide resources and support to students with disabilities. We do so here at BCS. The other side of this argument is that many fear accepting state funds for tuition or resource coverage will mean that private institutions will lose their autonomy and have to accept any child that walks through the door. This autonomy is being protected in the current Texas drawing of school choice plans to where each institution can set the boundaries and criteria of admission within their set school system, and they will not have to relax some of those criteria in order to participate in the school choice program.
Schools will be forced into numerous government strings of involvement – Another large point of contention surrounding school choice is a fear of a loss of liberties if school choice is participated in. The first item of clarification to present with this is that just because school choice might be an option, it does not mean you have to sign up or participate in its program. Those fearful of too much governmental oversight and strings, could forgo signing up with a school via this route, or can completely refuse to participate in the program all together if home schooled. Additionally, I know many of our representatives are fighting to protect the governmental interference involved in the education sector as much as possible by allowing the admissions standards and curriculum choices to fall into the hands of the individual school organizations. The largest “string” at this point will likely fall into the testing category for students participating. Currently, what is being articulated is that students must show cognitive progress and content/skill retention through a norm-based test to some degree. This DOES NOT mean that private schools will have to take the state assessments, but national assessments such as the NWEA, Iowa/COGAT, PSAT, SAT, and ACT (all of which many private schools, including BCS, already participate in) would suffice as proof and data to comply with this outlined measure.
School choice shouldn’t be an allocated budget line from the state but should stem from a full repeal of property taxes – There is much talk and emphasis in this current legislative session surrounding property tax reforms. One of the thought paths toward school choice funding is that the percentage of our property taxes allocated toward public schools should be returned to the hands of property owners to do with as they want. Although this is a potential avenue to explore, the likelihood of stepping to this side of the stream from where we currently are is going to call for some large-scale shifts that will take time and years to pass. The current school choice legislation, although not directly addressing property tax reform, carries the potential to carry a weightier conversation toward property tax reform if it proves to be successful, which again, many states have shown it to be. It allows for a softer swing of the pendulum from one extreme to the other in discussing state funding of education.
Is funding really the issue with education?
There is a lot of money in hand at the moment with our state budgetary allotment toward public schools, again near the $90 billion mark. In addition to this, many districts receive funds from federal level grants, local revenue sources, industry donations, and bonds to name a few. Yet as it was stated by one of our local districts recently, nearly 50% of our public schools faced budget deficits this last year. The question that stems out of this is whether funding is really the issue? Our schools have a lot of money coming in to operate with (go look at the financial records of your local district), yet can’t seem to make the mark of an even, zeroed-out budget. Management, distribution, and allocation of the collected funds needs to be re-evaluated. There are a lot of metrics out currently, that are not a complete picture of financial data for our public schools. When you see that the per pupil funding in Texas is $6500, please take that as only one figure being voiced that does not account for the several other income streams public education holds. Further, these numbers do not accurately portray the true monetary standing of many districts. For example, on Brazosport ISD’s “Financial Reports and Visualizations” webpage, there are some quick glances at per student financing. One of the graphs shows that from property taxes alone, this specific district held a $8,759.73 per student allocation. Additionally, the bottom graph shows you what the total per student revenue and expenditures have been from the years 2016-2022. The most recent numbers listed on this page from the 2021-2022 school year show that per student revenue was $14,332 and per student expenditures was $16,980. Further, if you look at the other graphs and reports throughout this page, you can see the full extent of the massive level of funds collected and operated with.
Although funding is important, what is discovered is that pouring more funds into a growingly contested system, and one that is even seen as failing in many capacities, is not necessarily the appropriate response to the problem. If you take a look at the US News education rankings for states and compare them to the “Per Student Spending Map” posted by the US Public Education Data Initiative, you will see that there is not always a clear correlation of higher spending equating to better educational standing. If you look at the rankings from this specific report, and compare them to per student spending, you can see examples such as Florida, Utah, and Indiana carrying evidence that states can still experience high educational success without high amounts of per student spending. Further, per student spending must keep in mind the standard of living rates and property values per each geographic area. All of this begs the question, though, if funding isn’t the issue, then what is the problem? We encourage each person to sort through this question and its answers within their specific community and with all perspectives and data held in view.
Does the general public want school choice?
A strength our state and modeled government system holds is that the voice of the majority is allowed to be expressed and is held before our representative bodies (legislative, executive, and judicial) as a source of accountability to ensure the needs of the people are heard and honored. Last legislative session we saw several Republican candidates who stood against school choice voted out of their held positions and replaced with candidates who represented the sentiment and direction the majority of the people in Texas have sought in the area of education. The rhetoric that certain people were bought into positions or forced into office, needs to be tempered with the reminder that at the end of the day, it is the general public that decides who steps into Believe it or not, there is a wide appeal to school choice within the state and many Texans are in favor of some sort of version of school choice. The polls and voted members of our legislative branch prove that. Additionally, there are several polls reflecting this desire for school options across ethnic and economic lines. The most recent Edition of Texas Trends Survey, held that a majority of people in most groups and subpopulations do hold a favorable outlook to school choice initiatives.
How are private schools held accountable?
There is a lot of contradicting rhetoric being presented right now about private schools not holding any measure of accountability within their operations. This is a grossly misrepresented statement in many capacities. Much of the school choice requirements centers on schools who are accredited through recognized agencies that hold robust standards of Specifically for BCS, we are accredited through one of the largest Christian accreditation agencies, ACSI, and follow a rigorous outline of standards we are graded on and must show steps of improvement toward. One of the areas evaluated includes testing and data metrics in scale from nationally recognized assessments (PSAT, NWEA, Iowa/Cogat, and others) as well as benchmark and unit assessments with regularly reviewed data. The difference is our student’s success for the year is not solely based on this one assessment, nor are our teachers spurred on to cover only the information found on these types of assessments. Further, there is annual reporting that must be submitted each year to the accreditation agencies showing compliance, and specifically with ACSI, there is a 5 year rotation of a full audit where a team of people will come in and evaluate each domain and section of our accreditation standards, and interview and meet with everyone from board of directors, administration, teaching and support staff, parents and students. To view what the indicators and standards are through ACSI, check out their Standard Indicator List.
The other piece of accountability not being disclosed at this point is that our parents are our biggest evidence of evaluation. Parents are willingly choosing for their children to attend our school, despite their property tax allotments going toward local districts to fund the systems they are opting to remove themselves from. What I can say handedly is that for BCS, over the last 5 years, we have experienced a growth rate of 180%, and the enrollment is still At this moment we serve roughly 360 students within our area from Pre-K-12th Grade. This is highlighted simply to show that parents are interested in alternative options, even if it costs them. The heart behind school choice is removing a funding penalty in place for those families who choose to detour from the standard public education system and pursue another alternative.
According to local districts, we are seeing public institutions look for alternative accreditation assessments that don’t focus solely on state testing results and attendance. On the Brazosport ISD’s “Legislative Priorities” page, under the “What should I advocate for regarding school funding?” tab, it requests, “advocating for the repeal of the A-F accountability system and pushing for more fair and locally-based assessment measures.” There is growing distress about how unfair and unreasonable their current accountability system is. Yet, when it comes to one of the biggest critiques about school choice from public school advocates, one of the resounding forms of speech is that private schools have zero accountability (which is shown otherwise from above) and that private schools aren’t being held to the same standards of accountability the public schools must abide by, and might be added are trying to flee. In summary, the opinion for public school advocates is that private education should be held to a set of standards they themselves don’t think is fair or good. Check out the following link for examples of TEA Accountability Standards.
Specifically for BCS, due to our accreditation holding with ACSI, we are seen and recognized by TEA and other higher education institutes, through the partnership held with the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission (TEPSAC), as being just as qualified of an educational institute as any other public school district in the state.
What are some additional resources to view about school choice measures?
With the quick move that legislation could sometimes hold, there is a lot of verbiage that can change at times. One resource we always encourage people to view is to read through the exact bills as they are being released, rather than relying on the sentiment or interpretation of The Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives hold live broadcasts of their meetings and post bills being reviewed, discussed and passed on their website.
