SAN ANTONIO – Local parents are divided on school voucher legislation ahead of Gov. Greg Abbott’s visit to San Antonio.
Abbott and other lawmakers are set to visit Parent Empowerment Night at San Antonio Christian School on Monday to speak about their efforts to pass school vouchers in Texas.
Abbott declared school vouchers an emergency during his State of the State address on Feb. 2.
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Families could receive $10,000 a year per student in public taxpayer dollars under Senate Bill 2, according to the Texas Tribune. The legislation would provide $11,500 per student for children with disabilities.
The funds can be used for children’s tuition at an accredited private school as well as other expenses, including textbooks, transportation and therapy.
Parents divided
Jose Yakin’s 18-month-old daughter is still far away from grade school, but he still says he doesn’t support the idea of billions of dollars of surplus state funds being used for the school voucher system.
“I’m not a huge fan of it,” Yakin said. “In particular, I think it’s going to take a lot away from the public school system, which is pretty nice in some areas. In fact, I’d rather see [them] increase public school funding.”
Shelby Almarez, a mother of two, said growing up in the Harlandale ISD system left her feeling unchallenged.
Almarez is putting both of her sons through private school and wants to see how a voucher program could help her.
“It’s really hard. We have to budget for it and really make sacrifices on other things that, you know, maybe I want,” she said. “But it’s all about the kids, so it would be really nice to get some help on private school as well.”
Chandler Tadlock, a parent and teacher at Alamo Heights ISD teacher, said she is passionately against a school voucher program.
“I feel very strongly in public schools and the role that they play in our communities, and being an educator, it’s been really challenging,” Tadlock said. "I mean, our district just went through a series of budget cuts and trying to decide what to cut".
Tadlock said she would rather confront problems in the public school system head-on and see the money for education savings accounts go back into school districts across the state.
"I would argue that, you know, the way that we address that problem is not by removing funding, but by adding funding," Tadlock said. “I mean, we can’t fix something if we’re not investing in it.”
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