In October of 2023, Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, held teacher raises hostage until the legislature passed his school voucher law. Despite the dangers of dividing an already embattled American education system, Abbott’s voucher program passed the State Senate, but failed in the Texas House.
Rural Republicans were actually the ones who held the line to defeat the bill. Republican Rep. Stan Lambert from Abilene told KUT News in Austin, “every dollar that we spent on a voucher is going to be a dollar that is taken away from being able to invest in public education.”
A University of Houston and Texas Southern University poll found a majority (65%) of people supporting vouchers. However, 64% of respondents in that poll claimed they would “support education savings accounts for low-income parents only.” The poll was conducted by a controversial, UK-based polling firm: YouGov. Conversely, a poll from the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found the opposite, with 57% of respondents disapproving of the use of tax dollars for school vouchers; according to reporting from Axios. Abbot has said that he plans to pursue the voucher program further.
Vouchers or not, Texas has not increased the per student allotment amount since 2019. Reporting by San Antonio Express-News cited Texas Education Agency (TEA) data that “shows inflation-adjusted per-student funding for the state’s public schools has decreased since 2014.” Divide, defund, privatize and deflect; it’s a decades old political strategy that has had the result of gutting public education. Abbott’s staffers claimed in 2023 that “per student funding is at (an) all time high,” while Abbott himself claimed, “I approved more funding for public schools than any other governor in the history of our state,” despite Hearst Newspapers finding those numbers had been incorrectly adjusted for high inflation (San Antonio Express-News). Abbott’s adjusted response since other outlets have continued to report the misleading claim is that it’s not his fault. He said, “You’ll be shocked to hear this, but it’s not me that’s responsible for this,” Abbott said last month in response to the funding complaints during a KYFO radio interview. “Almost every school district in the state of Texas, as well as across the United States, is facing that very same problem for reasons completely unrelated to the state of Texas.”
He is certainly not wrong about the problem of nationally underfunded schools, but to say it isn’t his fault is misleading in that leveraging a pet voucher program over teacher pay definitely isn’t helpful. A study by the Century Foundation in 2020 found that K-12 American schools are underfunded by at least “$150 billion annually, robbing more than 30 million school children the resources they need to succeed in the classroom.” Further, due to a federal audit, Texas school districts lost access to $300 million of special education funding in February.
Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston wrote to SA Express-News: “If we don’t do something about it and do something about it quickly, public education in the State of Texas will suffer,” he said. “Our 5 million children in public schools will not get the benefit of the education that they deserve.”
Districts all over the state have been scrambling for funding since 2019. School boards all over the state voted to include a bond election like in the Houston Independent School District. More districts, however, have opted to include a VATRE, or Voter Approval Tax Rate Election. According to KVUE Austin, the difference is that a bond can be used for construction or building repairs in the district but not staff pay or operating expenses. Conversely, a VATRE, can increase taxes and can be used for staff pay. Bonds add to debt in the respective district, VATREs do not.
Since VATREs are tax increases they’re based on home value, and therefore vary between districts. For example, in Magnolia ISD, their proposed VATRE would raise $3.7 million a year based on an average home valuation of $428,000, equaling approximately $98 a year, or ~$8.21 a month. In Austin ISD they’re proposing a VATRE that would raise $41 million in extra funding per year. Alief ISD has an average home value of $230,000 according to Charles Woods, the Alief Deputy Superintendent of Business, who estimated a $15 million increase in available budget funds per year. Mr. Woods appeared on the Alief ISD Impact podcast with Dr. Jeanine Porter, the Chief of Staff in the district. Woods explained that without the funding, Alief could lose their unique enrichment programs. Dr. Porter also said that Texas ranks 40th in the nation in per pupil student allotment. Many districts across the state are wrestling with similar circumstances, including Spring ISD and Waller, Northwest, and Frisco ISDs near the Dallas/Fort Worth region.
On the other hand, major bonds on ballots this election season include Round Rock ISD’s, which is asking voters for nearly $1 billion. Although each district is making their own attempts to shore up their budgets, either through voter approved bonds or VATREs, even Round Rock’s billion dollar ask pales in comparison to the nearly $4.4 billion bond HISD is asking for, spread over 2 different propositions on Harris County ballots. Proposition A would allocate $3.96 billion for construction and renovations – or what they called “urgent facility needs” – and Proposition B would award $440 million to technology and infrastructure. There are many other VATREs and bonds on ballots in districts all over the state, which can be found here in a searchable database.
HISD’s historic bond plan, and first since 2012 – which was a $1.9 billion dollar plan – sets a new record in Texas and stacks up against similar plans nationwide. In comparison, Dallas ISD held the previous record for the largest bond in the state with a $3.5 billion bond in 2020. “Austin ISD voters approved a $2.4 billion bond in 2022, and voters in the fast-growing Propser ISD near Dallas approved a $2.7 billion bond in 2023.” The Chronicle reported in May, “voters in the Los Angeles school district, the second largest school system in the nation, approved a $7 billion bond in 2020.”
In January, Houston Landing reported that the size of HISD’s budget hole totalled $250 million just this year on Mike Miles proposed $2.1 billion budget. HISD has roughly 24,500 employees, whose salaries and wages make up three-quarters of yearly spending in the district, which is expected to reach $2.2 billion this year. However, unlike VATREs, bonds cannot be used to pay staff. If approved, the money will go to improving facilities and infrastructure that the Chronicle reported in April, failed “to meet some indoor environmental quality standards” on nearly every campus. Community members are aware of the issues, and a PAC called Houstonians for Safe and Healthy Schools raised $755,000 to advocate for the bonds passage. The concern from critics however hasn’t been the money itself, it’s who will be facilitating it’s distribution throughout the district.
Community members have been vocal in their opposition to the takeover, and remain conflicted about the bond in HISD. The distrust stems from a rogue Spectrum News article alleging tomfoolery. While critics wanted an independent investigation, the TEA has since released the results of an investigation that concludes there was no wrongdoing. Morath has been supportive of charter schools in the past, and Mike Miles has a controversial record as a former superintendent of Dallas ISD before his time in Houston.
In June, Mike Miles appointed seven new cabinet members, four of which have past experience or current connections to charter schools or similar policies. According to the Houston Chronicle, Miles’ Chief of Staff, Kerri Briggs, consults for the Cicero Group which uses the “data-driven” tactics common in districts that are implementing charter programs. One of the new division superintendents, Orlando Riddick, partnered with IDEA Public Schools charter network in his time at Cedar Hill and Midland ISDs, respectively. Kristen Dobson Hole, the Chief Academic Officer, has worked with Deloitte as well as Excel Academy Charter Schools. Miles’ Executive Director and Deputy Chief of Schools, Sandi Massey, followed him from Third Future Schools to Houston.
Mike Miles and Morath’s prior connection to charter schools and TEA support of Abbott’s voucher program, Miles’ past in Colorado and Dallas ISD as a controversial and divisive character in education, as well as the allegations of impropriety which the TEA have defended from any wrongdoing; still casts the perception of doubt on a much needed injection of funds for Houston’s largest district.
Early Voting runs from Monday, Oct. 21 through Friday, Nov. 1. Click here for a list of Harris County early voting locations and hours.
