In Boerne a civil debate was held to inform the community on the topic of school vouchers Tuesday.
BOERNE, Texas — As the 89th Legislative Session heats up, school choice vouchers are now deemed an “emergency item” by Governor Abbott.
Tuesday the governor spoke at an East Texas private school advocating choice for parents.
In Boerne, a civil debate was held to inform the community on the topic.
The consensus from the discussion at the Patrick Heath Library is “putting the children first” and that “Texas schools including Boerne ISD need more funding.”
Two people, one for and one against school choice vouchers spoke to a group from the Boerne community including several Boerne ISD board members.
The main argument for the vouchers being they would promote competition and give parents the decision to send their children to whatever school they want despite what they make.
The argument against vouchers was the private schools are making the choices, not the kids or the parents and at the end of the day they succeed in securing funding instead of public schools who need it.
A Boerne ISD board member and Boerne ISD parent in the audience shared their opinions with KENS 5.
“There’s a lot of financial issues as far as what kids can be helped, I’d love to see another option and I think that’s where you find choice,” Boerne ISD parent Dallas Pipes said.
“Private schools have been able to raise their tuition but we have not received a raise in the base allotment and that’s very challenging,” Boerne ISD Board of Trustees member Rich Sena said.
This comes as Abbott spoke at an East Texas private school touching on things like increasing funding for teachers and public schools in Texas and of course school choice vouchers.
On Sunday, the governor made vouchers an emergency item in the legislature. This means legislatures can immediately vote on this item instead of waiting 60 days into the session.
“Far more than 30 states already have school choice, it’s like Texas is behind, it hasn’t destroyed public education at all, its just made public education more competitive,” Abbott said.
If passed in this legislative session school vouchers would provide parents $10,000 per child to help send them to the school of their choice.