Educational Choice in Texas: The Fierce Urgency of Now

On the Texas Public Policy webpage, Kevin Roberts wrote an article about Educational Choice in Texas: The Fierce Urgency of Now. Similar to my first blog post, Roberts also discusses the issues with Texas education. Many parents wish for their children to be provided with the best education possible. It appears that in Texas, nearly 1 million students are struggling in school. Roberts can't stress enough how important education really is, and how the state of Texas should do something for those students struggling to ensure that all children are provided with the best education possible.

In aiming to resolve this issue, there is an idea that has been brought to our attention and that is "Education Savings Accounts" or known as ESA. This would put the needs of children ahead of the demands of the system and allow parents to customize their parents education. ESA is registered with an online account or a debit card in which parents can use to pay for their child's school expenses. This money would still be coming from the state funds that would typically be used to pay children education for public school. 

Robert goes on to mention "with the 2017 legislative session now underway, Texas is already lagging behind most states in offering liberty-based policy innovation for education." Many states have already passed some form of education choice including ESA. Some people may think Texas should just spend more money on the system. The problem with that is that we don't spend new education dollars on education. Only half of the money is ended up in a classroom. 

The author concludes with how if Texas choose a good education choice such as ESA, this innovation will help all students. Giving the parents freedom to customize their child's education could be very beneficial not only to the parents but also for the government. 

I believe the author is trying to get the attention of Texas residents to better inform us how poorly our education system is set up. Doing so will open up the eyes of many Texans including myself of how important it is that the government act on this issue. Roberts seemed to have fairly accurate information that was conducted from research. The author did an excellent job on emphasizing how important this issue is, how Texas is behind in their education choice, and how we must act on this. In addition, I do agree with the author because education is key. If parents are given the choice to form their child's education this will hopefully lead to children being more successful in terms of education. Those 1 million children struggling will hopefully begin shining. However, I do believe there should be restrictions and guidelines that come with this freedom.