(Austin) — The start of the Texas legislative session is less than a week away and one of the biggest debates will be over public education. A group of Republicans is once again pushing a voucher program that would send tax dollars to private schools. Clay Robison, of the Texas State Teachers Association, says that’s not a good idea.
“Vouchers are not the answer to any of the education issues that we may want to fix. The answer is fully funding our public schools,” said Robison.
Robison heads up the TSTA and says vouchers have been tried for years, but they always fail.
“Vouchers is just another way to take money from public schools that are already underfunded,” said Robison.
Robison says he thinks it’s only urban lawmakers, who want to use vouchers. He says he believes it’s still relatively unpopular in rural parts of the state.
“It makes no sense for them taking some of their tax dollars out of their local public schools, and shipping them off to private schools in Houston, Dallas and Austin,” said Robison.
The issues of school choice and vouchers will likely again be debated during the upcoming legislative session, which begins next week in Austin.