Texas Legislators Expected to Vote on School Choice Bill

The School of Choice process provides parents with the ability to apply to a school outside of their child’s attendance area on a space-available basis.

Tuesday was also the original date for a US senate committee to vote on the nomination of Betsey DeVos as Secretary of Education, but that vote has now been moved to next Tuesday, January 31st. The goal of the event is to highlight the importance of school choice to families in Mississippi.

For the first time, the governor joined longtime voucher supporter Patrick and thousands of cheering supporters at the annual “National School Choice Week” rally, held Tuesday in Austin.

Sarah Carr, editor of the Teacher Project at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, writes for Slate that history has already proven that the fight for school choice without any government intervention is bad for students.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) spoke about his own rise out of poverty and the role of education in changing lives.

“We would be underfunding at a greater level if we siphon off dollars and send those to vouchers“, said Gary Godsey, executive director of the Association of Texas Professional Educators. And now before the Texas Legislature are significant measures that will continue to expand school choice across our state.

More than 20,000 National School Choice Week events are going on throughout the country this week.

The consequences of a voucher program would not just be unintended but dire.

Tommy Luna exercised his choice when charter schools were expanded.

She has won endorsements from Jeb Bush, who built a national reputation in education after he implemented sweeping new policies as governor of Florida; Rod Paige, education secretary under President George W. Bush; and Anthony Williams, a Democrat and former D.C. mayor.

Messer said there’s also a congressional proposal to expand school options through tax credits.

Colorado is one of few states that allow parents to choose where their kids go to school. Some parents want that and others, don’t. Harris once served on the board of a private school and now works with the Harvest Initiative, which brings black business owners together in efforts to improve education and economic participation in their communities.

At her hearing, DeVos said she did not intend to undermine public education, though Sen. “We have plenty of choices”. Realtors in Texas need to ask themselves why they are allowing an unproven system to be imposed that potentially will cost them millions of dollars in lost real estate commissions.

Deborah Hendrix with “Parents Challenge” says they want to help find the right fit for their kids.

Debated for quite some time now, it’s been a very controversial issue for a while and proponents have been trying to pass a “school choice” bill for years.