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initiative Governor Abbott declared a
priority for the session school vouchers.
Today is the deadline for the
House to advance legislation.
Joining us this morning is Stephanie Boyce,
Executive Director of the Freshman Classroom,
to talk more about this.
Good morning, Stephanie. Good
morning. How are you doing?
Good. Glad to have you with
us this morning. So I want to ask you,
how do school vouchers work and why is
this school choice such a hot topic during
our legislative session right now? Yeah,
it's a lot since that.
First, thank you for having me.
I appreciate you taking time
to really dive into the topic.
So with school vouchers,
we see over and over that what
happens is we get this raging
debate on both sides of the ais.
We have people that are saying,
on one hand,
I want the right to choose wheny
student is going to go to schoo,
make sure they have the most opportunities.
And on the other hand,
a group of people that say we have to
be sure that we're making the bt
decision for all students in the middle,
we have some people that are.
Making some political decisions and then
so we see this big massive uprig
this year in the legislative session.
And so really the way that it ws
is that for some people they wao
be able to have a voucher that s
like a scholarship where they can say,
I have a certain amount of money
in which I can choose to send
my child to a private school.
Of my choosing. And so that's why you,
you keep hearing this, this phr.
School choice.
School choice,
yes.
So people want to make sure they
have that option either to sendm
to a school or sometimes they cd
use that same voucher for things
like tutoring services or things
that they want to use to enrich
their child's learning experien.
Interesting.
OK, So what are the pros? And this is
according to people who support this,
right? So for people that support it,
first of all, it's just that
first option of having a choice.
Especially when you think about
some people say my child might
have some special interest,
I want to be able to choose to d
them to a private school where they're
going to nurture the special interest or
whatever is happening with their child.
And so that's very important to some people.
But one of the other pros is tht
if you're in an area where you
feel like the schools are faili,
those parents are particularly saying,
I don't have time for y'all to
figure out how to fix this thing
that's going on with the particr
school in my neighborhood.
Give me the money and let me tae
my kid to a place where the schs
are are better and they can get
a better learning experience.
The decision to take them
where they want to go.
What about the cons from critic?
What are they saying?
Well, the biggest thing is alwas
the fact that you're going to be
taking taxpayer dollars and then
funneling them to private schoo,
many of which are associated
with religious organizations.
And so when we talk about the
separation of church and state,
that's a big issue for a lot of people,
especially when the schools
are already underfunded.
And we're always talking about w
we need to be giving more moneyo
the schools so that they can mae
the learning better for all students.
Gosh, so many different
sides to all this sides.
What can parents and educators
do to make sure their voices
are heard on school choice?
Yeah, I say the first thing that
you can do is do your research.
Do your research for yourself.
What you will find when you stao
do research with information ths
readily available is that in otr
states where they've gone throuh
with these types of voucher programs,
you have to look at what the data would
suggest in terms of the effectiveness.
The students that get these vous
and go to the private schools ep
miraculously turning around and having
a better educational experience.
The research does not support t.
And So what you see is.
If vouchers were to be granted tomorrow,
let's say Suzanne,
and we gave every student a vour
to go wherever they wanted to g.
The private schools don't have the capacity.
And I'm saying this because
I'm uniquely positioned.
I was an administrator at the pc
school level and the private scl
level until I've worked on both sides.
And I understand when it comes to parents,
they love their kids,
they want them to have the
most opportunities, right?
But we have to consider just
like if it was a car and I said
everybody go get a free car,
there wouldn't be enough cars.
Right.
It's a matter of supply and dem.
So we have to be mindful about
what's going to be best for all
students and that for parents,
they got to do their research,
they got to do their research ad
then contact their representatives to
let them know based on their research
what it is they want them to be doing.
Around voting for these bills.
Perfect. Stephanie,
we appreciate your time. Thank .
And to learn more about what Stephanie does,
you can go to freshmanclassroom.
The Freshman classroom.com and you can
also find her Instagram at Doctor Sr.
Boyce and on Facebook at Stephanie Boyce.