Texas PTA Legislative Update

(March 19, 2008)
Just because it is the legislative interim, doesn't mean things are quiet in the state's capitol!! The issue of vouchers has arisen yet again.

Over the last few weeks a newly formed council, The High School Completion and Success Initiative Council (HSCSIC), has been meeting to create a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of grants designed to improve high schools. The HSCSIC was also charged with the review of best practice around the country to address dropout prevention. The council, created in the last legislative session by HB 2237 was co-authored by Senator Florence Shapiro, (R) Plano and Rep. Rob Eissler, (R) The Woodlands, both chairmen of the public education committees in the House and Senate.

The rationale for the council was this: Session after session, lawmakers add layer upon layer of grants and programs, many of them targeting high schools and designed to improve performance of high school students and to reduce dropout. Legislators seldom receive feedback on the effectiveness of these grant programs that are administered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The bill created a council to evaluate the effectiveness of the grants and to take a close look at practices to reduce dropouts in Texas. The bill authorized Gov. Perry, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, and Speaker Craddick to appoint members to the task force. Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott is the chairman of the council.

Over the last couple of weeks the council has attracted some attention by incorporating an interesting twist on dropout recovery: a voucher-like program to bring dropouts back to school. TEA likely would contract with non-profits and/or school districts to recover high school dropouts, bringing them back into a school setting. The setting into which dropouts would return could be public school, private school or charter school. Each dropout recovered would be equivalent to some amount of cost-per-student set by the agency.

Commissioner Scott has argued that this program should not be called a voucher program because it would not be offering a voucher to a parent or student to attend a private school. Instead, this would be a dropout recovery program, one in which the Texas Education Agency would use grant funds from a variety of sources - state funds, foundation grant funds and possibly federal funds - to enter a contract with a private vendor, or a school district, to go out and recover those students who have left the school system.

The council voted late last week to include the dropout recovery plan in the overall plan.

Both Sen. Shapiro and Rep. Eissler agree that vouchers were not intended to be considered by the council created by HB 2237, which was expected to study and monitor the effectiveness of dropout programs. Both say they will wait on the rule-making language to make any judgment about the plan.

To implement some type of voucher/choice program before the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year would necessitate the following timeline: Rules for the program would have to be posted within the next couple of weeks, followed by a 30-day review period and a likely 60-day public hearing process.

Several education associations have all but promised litigation if the proposed program resembles anything that might be perceived as opening the door on vouchers.

Over the next few days Texas PTA will:

• Author, along with other members of the Coalition for Public Schools, a letter to legislators sharing their concerns about the HSCSIC plan

• Draft an op-ed to be submitted to a major newspaper in Texas expressing Texas PTA's position on the plan approved by the HSCSIC and restating our position on voucher programs.

• Draft a letter to members of the HSCSIC with details of concerns Texas PTA has about the overall plan

• Make plans to provide testimony during the public hearing process for rules for the program