Well, color me shocked. The latest data for Texas’ shiny new “Education Freedom Accounts” is in, and it turns out that “freedom” mostly means the freedom for people already paying for private school to stick the rest of us with the bill. Of the 160,000 families who’ve applied for these vouchers so far, a staggering 76% are students who are already enrolled in private schools. It’s a Christmas miracle in March—except the taxpayer is Santa, and we’re mostly just subsidizing the tuition for kids who were already doing fine without us.
In Lubbock, we’ve got 17 private schools jumping on the bandwagon. Most of the applicants are for Pre-K and Kindergarten, because apparently, once your kid is actually in the public system, you’ve either given up hope or realized that $1 billion in taxpayer money might have been more useful if it went to the schools that are actually, you know, closing down across the state.
The program claims it will “prioritize” the 22,000 applicants who qualify for special education. Of course, critics are pointing out the hilarious irony that private schools don’t actually have to follow the same accountability standards as public schools. So, we’re essentially paying for a system where public schools do the heavy lifting of testing and diagnosis, only for the voucher money to head off to a private institution that can decide it’s “not a good fit” whenever they feel like it.
Local headmasters are, predictably, thrilled, calling it a “blessing” for families. And why wouldn’t they be? It’s not every day the government hands out a billion-dollar gift card to your specific business model while the public alternative is checking the couch cushions for spare change.
If we’re going to use public funds to pay for things people were already buying anyway, can I get a voucher for my next round at the country club, or is that “freedom” reserved for toddlers?
