I was reading through the Prop 9 COLA thread, and saw a ton of discussion by people saying you should be able to send your kid to school wherever you want, and expressing disdain for the public education system.

Is there not a system of school choice in Texas? Here in Florida, I can enroll my 2nd grader in any public school in the state that I want, so long as they have room and we provide transportation. We have our daughter in a private Christian school, and just this year the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school. The program used to have pretty stringent income limits, but those have been lifted and the funds are available to anyone, so long as you apply early (it's pretty much first-come-first-serve for the pool of funds, with priority given first to low-income families).

Does Texas not have any of these kinds of programs? They've really been great here. The scholarship program has especially been beneficial, and we are taking advantage of it this year. My daughter's school has a about 200 kids K-8, and is looking at doubling enrollment next year as more kids are able to escape the public system.

I say all of this as a public high school teacher. When my daughter gets to be high school age, we will probably have her come to my school. For some reason, the private schools around here seem to go downhill at the high school level (they seem to shift their focus completely to athletics or religious instruction, and drop the academic rigor they had in the elementary and middle levels).

In Texas public schools you attend the district in which you live. However, you can choose to transfer to another district IF the new district accepts your application. You can always send your kid to private school if they accept your application.

Where it gets stupid is when the UIL gets involved. If they kid is an athlete the morons at the UIL like to be little dictators and then they decide if the kid can participate in varsity level sports at the new school. Your family can actually move into a new district and if your kid is a good athlete the DEC can rule that they aren't eligible to participate in varsity level activities for one year. It's a damn joke and another example of adults choosing to do what's best for adults and not what's best for kids.

Not just UIL, but TAPPS, also.

Quote:

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the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school.

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This is what TX does not have and the biggest reason there is a hold up. Public schools want all that money because of their bloated Administrative costs and scream bloody murder that public funds are being used to indoctrinate kids into religion.

The first flaw in the argument is that they believe the money belongs to the state first. It doesn't. It belongs to the people.

I would love to have my public school taxes back to help pay for my daughter's private school.

We had a huge concern about FHSAA and how that would work for athletics when the school choice issue opened up. Coaches still can't "recruit," (they do anyway), but kids are pretty much free to move from one school to the other. A kid can play football at my school, then jump over to a school in Orlando 25 miles away for baseball, then come back to us for football the next year.

CDUB98 said:

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Quote:

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the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school.

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This is what TX does not have and the biggest reason there is a hold up. Public schools want all that money because of their bloated Administrative costs and scream bloody murder that public funds are being used to indoctrinate kids into religion.

The first flaw in the argument is that they believe the money belongs to the state first. It doesn't. It belongs to the people.

I would love to have my public school taxes back to help pay for my daughter's private school.

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Administration and bloat is a big issue. We've gone from single room school houses to an educational industrial complex that can no longer make small scale work (local school admin said a year or two ago they need 650 kids to effectively manage a school).

Public school teachers and administrators would have to fight hard battles if the good children with involved parents left too. They'd have to brave litigation over discipline and have the more difficult children in the classroom as the product they are judged by (rightly so as it is public school serving the entire public).

That's a tough job they don't really want. Parents and litigious groups get some blame here since they prevent reforms that might make it manageable.

CDUB98 said:

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Quote:

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the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school.

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This is what TX does not have and the biggest reason there is a hold up. Public schools want all that money because of their bloated Administrative costs and scream bloody murder that public funds are being used to indoctrinate kids into religion.

The first flaw in the argument is that they believe the money belongs to the state first. It doesn't. It belongs to the people.

I would love to have my public school taxes back to help pay for my daughter's private school.

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I've hear the same argument here with my coworkers. It irritates me to no end. But, as a government and economics teacher, I tend to see things a bit differently than my colleagues.

To my mind, there are several real problems with public schools that must be solved before we can really offer a good product to our communities in comparison to private schools:

1. Overuse of IEPs/504s/Mainstreaming. Too many kids are on IEPs and 504s for learning disabilities when they were simply never taught to buckle down, persevere, and engage in mentally difficult tasks. We also have forced kids who truly have special needs into the main classes, dragging down the overall quality of instruction as teachers have to spend extra time and effort with kids who legitimately cannot work at the standard level;

2. Lack of discipline. Your kid doesn't want to be here, work, and not be a disruption to others? Get the f*** out, then;

3. Administrative bloat/pet projects. We have an entire curriculum department in our district, with at least two people working for each subject area. Maybe they do stuff with the elementary schools, but I can tell you that at the secondary level, I have had no interaction with them or input from them into my classroom. I have no idea why that department exists. Also, I have an 80" TV monitor in my classroom with an attached ChromeBox to use for classroom presentations. The district spent several thousand dollars a piece to put one of these setups in every classroom across our 40+ schools. The claim was this would save the district money over the digital projectors we already had because we wouldn't have to change bulbs. I don't know what those costs were, but I do know that about 10 years ago I spent $200 of my own money to buy a short-throw projector for my room. I used for 8 1/2 years in the classroom, and never once had to change the bulb. But getting these TVs made it look like someone was doing something.

We will never actually be able to offer a competitive educational product while these issues persist.

Admin "initiatives" and brand new "revolutionary" ideas is such a major problem that many parents don't understand or appreciate. When school administration or district level folks think they have a solution to fix something with education, they put a massive burden on teachers to pilot these ideas out adding to an already massive plate teachers have. Not to mention the cost that ultimately always ends up in failure.

Message to private schools: Politicians are not your friends.

CDUB98 said:

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Quote:

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the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school.

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This is what TX does not have and the biggest reason there is a hold up. Public schools want all that money because of their bloated Administrative costs and scream bloody murder that public funds are being used to indoctrinate kids into religion.

The first flaw in the argument is that they believe the money belongs to the state first. It doesn't. It belongs to the people.

I would love to have my public school taxes back to help pay for my daughter's private school.

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Between property taxes on multiple homes, private school for my youngest and one in college, I'm paying about $60,000 per year to educate children in the State of Texas.

Owlagdad said:

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Message to private schools: Politicians are not your friends.

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My wife works at the private school my daughter attends. While she likes the money the scholarship program has saved us, she is waiting for the other shoe to drop with the state meddling in what happens in the private school.

Hit the nail on the head Judd with all your examples. Lack of any discipline is a huge problem and the over blown administrations are scared and reluctant to do anything about it. Kids are not learning and the poor teachers have no support!

Spotted Ag said:

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In Texas public schools you attend the district in which you live. However, you can choose to transfer to another district IF the new district accepts your application. You can always send your kid to private school if they accept your application.

Where it gets stupid is when the UIL gets involved. If they kid is an athlete the morons at the UIL like to be little dictators and then they decide if the kid can participate in varsity level sports at the new school. Your family can actually move into a new district and if your kid is a good athlete the DEC can rule that they aren't eligible to participate in varsity level activities for one year. It's a damn joke and another example of adults choosing to do what's best for adults and not what's best for kids.

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Well in Katy ISD, kids transfer all the time for football. It's getting ridiculous.

Travis Clardy in Nacogdoches sent me a newsletter yesterday.
It did not mention anything about school savings account or vouchers position.

I called his Nacogdoches office and a nice lady explained in a round about way he is against it. Rural schools is the main reason given. I gave my experience with grandkids and current school and rural schools and encouraged him to reconsider.

Need to call your state reps/senate if they are against it and let them know how you feel because the public school lobby sure lets them know.

Of course Clardy was supported by local liberal trial lawyer so I assumed he was liberal for an East Texas republican but he is who we have now.

ETA: impression I got was it's a local problem you have to deal with locally if your local public school has poor performance and poor discipline, locally.

It would be nice to simply drive to a private school of my choice if I wanted to instead of running for local school board. At least can drive to a different public school that will have many of the same state created problems.

tmaggies said:

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Hit the nail on the head Judd with all your examples. Lack of any discipline is a huge problem and the over blown administrations are scared and reluctant to do anything about it. Kids are not learning and the poor teachers have no support!

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A lot of those administrator positions are creations due to laws and regs passed by our own state. Granted, a lot of those could be accomplished by multiple people, but the admin bloat in the public school system is a real thing. And yet, class sizes keep expanding because "there's no money to hire another teacher." Ten years ago, my wife's classes average 20-25 kids per class. Now, they are 30-35, and you can't teach a class that size as effectively as you can a smaller class.

Cannot agree with #1 enough. I constantly argue with our department over kids who I believe are just lazy and don't want to put forth any effort (especially in mathematics) versus their opinion that "a little intervention" will help them pass. It's just a way for schools to cover their butts from parents who give their kids participation trophies.

#3 - We hired 3 more administration positions for this school year, and they are worthless/useless/spineless/any other word you can think of. We had SmartBoards to help with instruction, but they always broke, or the software didn't work on the computers. I stopped using it and went back to pencil and paper for all of my classes. I don't believe in this new age "everyone learns differently" curriculum where I have to provide 3 different modes of instruction. We learn by doing. We work problems together. I make them work examples on their own and then go over them. I don't spend class time going over STAAR practice. We learn how to do math, and they do well on the test. It doesn't take a curriculum director, an academic dean, or an instructional technologist to teach a class effectively. It is a waste of school resources.


Discipline is one of the biggest factors. It is nonexistent. You cannot tell a student no, you cannot hold them accountable for not doing their work, and you cannot reason with their parents. It is pathetic and sad, but what do you expect given the state of our country right now.

I could go on and on...

ABattJudd said:

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I was reading through the Prop 9 COLA thread, and saw a ton of discussion by people saying you should be able to send your kid to school wherever you want, and expressing disdain for the public education system.

Is there not a system of school choice in Texas? Here in Florida, I can enroll my 2nd grader in any public school in the state that I want, so long as they have room and we provide transportation. We have our daughter in a private Christian school, and just this year the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school. The program used to have pretty stringent income limits, but those have been lifted and the funds are available to anyone, so long as you apply early (it's pretty much first-come-first-serve for the pool of funds, with priority given first to low-income families).

Does Texas not have any of these kinds of programs? They've really been great here. The scholarship program has especially been beneficial, and we are taking advantage of it this year. My daughter's school has a about 200 kids K-8, and is looking at doubling enrollment next year as more kids are able to escape the public system.

I say all of this as a public high school teacher. When my daughter gets to be high school age, we will probably have her come to my school. For some reason, the private schools around here seem to go downhill at the high school level (they seem to shift their focus completely to athletics or religious instruction, and drop the academic rigor they had in the elementary and middle levels).

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Did private school tuition everywhere go up by $7,750/yr.?

nu awlins ag said:

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Spotted Ag said:

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In Texas public schools you attend the district in which you live. However, you can choose to transfer to another district IF the new district accepts your application. You can always send your kid to private school if they accept your application.

Where it gets stupid is when the UIL gets involved. If they kid is an athlete the morons at the UIL like to be little dictators and then they decide if the kid can participate in varsity level sports at the new school. Your family can actually move into a new district and if your kid is a good athlete the DEC can rule that they aren't eligible to participate in varsity level activities for one year. It's a damn joke and another example of adults choosing to do what's best for adults and not what's best for kids.

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Well in Katy ISD, kids transfer all the time for football. It's getting ridiculous.

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Can you share more about this?

Quote:

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Discipline is one of the biggest factors. It is nonexistent. You cannot tell a student no, you cannot hold them accountable for not doing their work, and you cannot reason with their parents. It is pathetic and sad, but what do you expect given the state of our country right now.

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I've found this not the be true at all in my classes and I've taught for 20+ years. Some parents don't always handle the situation well but a phone call and a meeting have solved that issue in 99% of cases. That could be the result of the specific schools I work in or have worked in.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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nu awlins ag said:

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Spotted Ag said:

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In Texas public schools you attend the district in which you live. However, you can choose to transfer to another district IF the new district accepts your application. You can always send your kid to private school if they accept your application.

Where it gets stupid is when the UIL gets involved. If they kid is an athlete the morons at the UIL like to be little dictators and then they decide if the kid can participate in varsity level sports at the new school. Your family can actually move into a new district and if your kid is a good athlete the DEC can rule that they aren't eligible to participate in varsity level activities for one year. It's a damn joke and another example of adults choosing to do what's best for adults and not what's best for kids.

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Well in Katy ISD, kids transfer all the time for football. It's getting ridiculous.

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Can you share more about this?

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It's not exactly true in that they're subject to the same rules, but it's true that people will move to a Katy neighborhood for their football program. I have a friend who's divorced. His ex wife is zoned to Katy, and he's zoned to Tompkins. His son went to Katy because of the football program. His daughter goes to Tompkins.

A few years ago, Katy was reprimanded because they played a backup toward the end of a blowout in a playoff game. The kid transferred there too close in proximity to the game I guess. Someone from another school noticed, and raised hell about it.

Years earlier, they were disqualified from playing in the state championship game as they were getting on buses to travel. I think someone had failed so they should have been ineligible maybe.

It goes the other way too. There is a highly recruited kid who transferred out of Katy high school because his brother didn't win a starting job.

Everyone is subject to the same UIL rules. And Katy high school is under more scrutiny, and gets put on blast for stupid letter of the law legalistic interpretations of UIL rules more than any school I know of.

What he's saying is basically something that just gets repeated over and over again around unincorporated Harris and ft. Bend counties in KISD.

Bob Lee said:

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ABattJudd said:

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I was reading through the Prop 9 COLA thread, and saw a ton of discussion by people saying you should be able to send your kid to school wherever you want, and expressing disdain for the public education system.

Is there not a system of school choice in Texas? Here in Florida, I can enroll my 2nd grader in any public school in the state that I want, so long as they have room and we provide transportation. We have our daughter in a private Christian school, and just this year the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school. The program used to have pretty stringent income limits, but those have been lifted and the funds are available to anyone, so long as you apply early (it's pretty much first-come-first-serve for the pool of funds, with priority given first to low-income families).

Does Texas not have any of these kinds of programs? They've really been great here. The scholarship program has especially been beneficial, and we are taking advantage of it this year. My daughter's school has a about 200 kids K-8, and is looking at doubling enrollment next year as more kids are able to escape the public system.

I say all of this as a public high school teacher. When my daughter gets to be high school age, we will probably have her come to my school. For some reason, the private schools around here seem to go downhill at the high school level (they seem to shift their focus completely to athletics or religious instruction, and drop the academic rigor they had in the elementary and middle levels).

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Did private school tuition everywhere go up by $7,750/yr.?

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At my daughter's school, tuition is still less than that. We don't get a refund for the difference, which is fine by me, but it means I'm not dropping that cash myself.

Another private school down the road is a really posh secular K-12 with a boarding option. Standard tuition there has been over $15k a year; I don't think they changed their tuition this year, either.

Same problem with Justin Holland east of Dallas. His staff will tell you it's about accountability and you can't keep certain books out of a private schools' library (because they think that will convince religious parents). His staff told me that people would send their kids to underperforming private schools and that student achievement wasn't an indicator of an accountable school.

When Republicans don't have staffers that understand basic market economics (if the school is bad people won't go and there will be no more school) and want to tie any issue to an emotional hook, then we have real problems.

aezmvp said:

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Same problem with Justin Holland east of Dallas. His staff will tell you it's about accountability and you can't keep certain books out of a private schools' library (because they think that will convince religious parents). His staff told me that people would send their kids to underperforming private schools and that student achievement wasn't an indicator of an accountable school.

When Republicans don't have staffers that understand basic market economics (if the school is bad people won't go and there will be no more school) and want to tie any issue to an emotional hook, then we have real problems.

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They actually said the thing about not being able to keep certain books out of the private school's libraries? Wow. They really have no good arguments in opposition to school choice.
This is bureaucrats protecting the jobs of other bureaucrats. Simple as that. The kids can take it up the rear for all they care.

Eta: I can't get over how weak of a retort that is, my eyes would just roll to the back of my head, and it would be so hard to keep my composure if I were talking to this person.
At my kid's school, every single class is recorded and available to watch by parents in their entirety. Try implementing that in a public school, and watch the teachers throw an epic tantrum. Every teacher has to sign an agreement that they are a practicing Catholic, and they understand that teaching anything antithetical to the faith is a fireable offense. They are at least a billion light-years ahead of public schools in the accountability department. How are people taken in by these idiotic talking points?

Bob Lee said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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nu awlins ag said:

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Spotted Ag said:

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In Texas public schools you attend the district in which you live. However, you can choose to transfer to another district IF the new district accepts your application. You can always send your kid to private school if they accept your application.

Where it gets stupid is when the UIL gets involved. If they kid is an athlete the morons at the UIL like to be little dictators and then they decide if the kid can participate in varsity level sports at the new school. Your family can actually move into a new district and if your kid is a good athlete the DEC can rule that they aren't eligible to participate in varsity level activities for one year. It's a damn joke and another example of adults choosing to do what's best for adults and not what's best for kids.

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Well in Katy ISD, kids transfer all the time for football. It's getting ridiculous.

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Can you share more about this?

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It's not exactly true in that they're subject to the same rules, but it's true that people will move to a Katy neighborhood for their football program. I have a friend who's divorced. His ex wife is zoned to Katy, and he's zoned to Tompkins. His son went to Katy because of the football program. His daughter goes to Tompkins.

A few years ago, Katy was reprimanded because they played a backup toward the end of a blowout in a playoff game. The kid transferred there too close in proximity to the game I guess. Someone from another school noticed, and raised hell about it.

Years earlier, they were disqualified from playing in the state championship game as they were getting on buses to travel. I think someone had failed so they should have been ineligible maybe.

It goes the other way too. There is a highly recruited kid who transferred out of Katy high school because his brother didn't win a starting job.

Everyone is subject to the same UIL rules. And Katy high school is under more scrutiny, and gets put on blast for stupid letter of the law legalistic interpretations of UIL rules more than any school I know of.

What he's saying is basically something that just gets repeated over and over again around unincorporated Harris and ft. Bend counties in KISD.

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That's what I believe as well. Kids move to the Katy zone before their freshman year to play football at KISD. Much in the same way South Asian families move to the Seven Lakes zone for academics, robotics, and quiz bowl. I'm not even associated with Katy HS and it gets old.

Also, Katy isn't held to a higher standard either. They've not been reprimanded for breaking the letter of the law interpretation issue. That's the KHS persecution mentality at work.

If I remember correctly, Katy didn't get in trouble with the backup because an administrative mistake was made at the district level. Since KISD does such a good job with their UIL procedures, the Athletic Director was put on probation for a year and Katy continued to be eligible for the playoffs.

My point is that things like that go unnoticed at other schools. I believe it was a parent from another school who pointed it out. Katy wasn't doing something sneaky and underhanded to try and gain an advantage. They were playing a kid that doesn't get to play much in a blowout. It was petty.

Eta: I don't think KHS is treated unfairly by UIL. I just think it's lame that some parents take it upon themselves to add a level of scrutiny to their program because they're upset that Katy whoops up on their kid's team every year. That one in particular was about the least flagrant, innocent mistake you could make.

ABattJudd said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Quote:

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the state expanded a scholarship program to pay up to $7,750 a year for any student to attend private school.

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This is what TX does not have and the biggest reason there is a hold up. Public schools want all that money because of their bloated Administrative costs and scream bloody murder that public funds are being used to indoctrinate kids into religion.

The first flaw in the argument is that they believe the money belongs to the state first. It doesn't. It belongs to the people.

I would love to have my public school taxes back to help pay for my daughter's private school.

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I've hear the same argument here with my coworkers. It irritates me to no end. But, as a government and economics teacher, I tend to see things a bit differently than my colleagues.

To my mind, there are several real problems with public schools that must be solved before we can really offer a good product to our communities in comparison to private schools:

1. Overuse of IEPs/504s/Mainstreaming. Too many kids are on IEPs and 504s for learning disabilities when they were simply never taught to buckle down, persevere, and engage in mentally difficult tasks. We also have forced kids who truly have special needs into the main classes, dragging down the overall quality of instruction as teachers have to spend extra time and effort with kids who legitimately cannot work at the standard level;

2. Lack of discipline. Your kid doesn't want to be here, work, and not be a disruption to others? Get the f*** out, then;

3. Administrative bloat/pet projects. We have an entire curriculum department in our district, with at least two people working for each subject area. Maybe they do stuff with the elementary schools, but I can tell you that at the secondary level, I have had no interaction with them or input from them into my classroom. I have no idea why that department exists. Also, I have an 80" TV monitor in my classroom with an attached ChromeBox to use for classroom presentations. The district spent several thousand dollars a piece to put one of these setups in every classroom across our 40+ schools. The claim was this would save the district money over the digital projectors we already had because we wouldn't have to change bulbs. I don't know what those costs were, but I do know that about 10 years ago I spent $200 of my own money to buy a short-throw projector for my room. I used for 8 1/2 years in the classroom, and never once had to change the bulb. But getting these TVs made it look like someone was doing something.

We will never actually be able to offer a competitive educational product while these issues persist.

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You just laid out some great reasons why parents want their kids out of public schools. There may be several families that would leave if they had this little extra bit of money in their pockets to do it.

This is the parents' money first, not the govt's.

Rural school districts fight school choice because government jobs are usually the only remaining good paying jobs in rural areas. The more rural the area the more stratified the job market becomes. Either you're a land owner or an hourly laborer. Being a part of a school district (no matter how underpaid they say) is a pipe dream compared to getting back out and doing manual labor. Government jobs also become extremely nepotistic in these areas.

School choice would dismantle what little lower middle class jobs are available into even more lower paid, leaner jobs.

So when rural politicians fight school choice its because the school teacher and administration voting block is strong enough to keep a politician in check so the admin can keep their gravy train running.

I will say as a parent who just move our kids into private school, the one factor that is universal is parental involvement (either too much or too little). End of the day, parents bear the ultimate responsibility in terms of shaping their children. The amount of entitlement, apathy, laziness, disrespect, etc. is present in both public and private. The difference is that public education enables it much more.

Public schools dont care about your kids, its very evident. Teachers probably do for the most part, but the people making the big dollars at these schools care absolutely zero about your children. Its all about money. And they want more of it.

I have a lot of experience with the Texas public education system for over 50 years. A very good system over all but not perfect. Biggest problem is apathetic selfish voters who do not pay attention to who they are voting for the school boards. From that good or bad leads to poor administration, budget problems, discipline, etc. We know who they are for the state had to move in with magistrates.

School choice is fine but a whole sale diversion of dollars from a system that has worked for 95% of the time is not workable.

I personally went to catholic school during elementary school for my mother did not like what she saw in my local school district. Ok but we moved later to another city and we finished in public school. My parents got zero dollars from the state to help with tuition in the catholic schools.

To sum up the practicality of having "choice" needs to be fully understood for the so called choice schools could not accommodate some abrupt shift. So why not fix the problem with the struggling school district with more support to deal with discipline and sometimes poor teaches. Provide an incentive for top teaches to go in and teach and not have to deal with class disruption.

Someone posted the high school rankings of Katy ISD, and the lowest performing school was in the top 17% of the nation. For a school I would consider to be bad, on the verge of very bad.

And its top 17%. And that stat blew me away.

It basically reframed this whole argument for me, because its obvious that public schools cannot be saved as a whole. The main fight is between the top 5% of public schools to cut their dead weight and be able to compete with top .1% private schools.

Houstonag said:

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I have a lot of experience with the Texas public education system for over 50 years. A very good system over all but not perfect. Biggest problem is apathetic selfish voters who do not pay attention to who they are voting for the school boards. From that good or bad leads to poor administration, budget problems, discipline, etc. We know who they are for the state had to move in with magistrates.

School choice is fine but a whole sale diversion of dollars from a system that has worked for 95% of the time is not workable.

I personally went to catholic school during elementary school for my mother did not like what she saw in my local school district. Ok but we moved later to another city and we finished in public school. My parents got zero dollars from the state to help with tuition in the catholic schools.

To sum up the practicality of having "choice" needs to be fully understood for the so called choice schools could not accommodate some abrupt shift. So why not fix the problem with the struggling school district with more support to deal with discipline and sometimes poor teaches. Provide an incentive for top teaches to go in and teach and not have to deal with class disruption.

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When you say they work 95% of the time what are you measuring?

one MEEN Ag said:

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Rural school districts fight school choice because government jobs are usually the only remaining good paying jobs in rural areas. The more rural the area the more stratified the job market becomes. Either you're a land owner or an hourly laborer. Being a part of a school district (no matter how underpaid they say) is a pipe dream compared to getting back out and doing manual labor. Government jobs also become extremely nepotistic in these areas.

School choice would dismantle what little lower middle class jobs are available into even more lower paid, leaner jobs.

So when rural politicians fight school choice its because the school teacher and administration voting block is strong enough to keep a politician in check so the admin can keep their gravy train running.

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Except there is no other choice in a rural setting. The public school is the only option. IMO, that argument is DOA.

It's not like someone can just set up an accredited school in a couple of days.

ABattJudd said:

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We had a huge concern about FHSAA and how that would work for athletics when the school choice issue opened up. Coaches still can't "recruit," (they do anyway), but kids are pretty much free to move from one school to the other. A kid can play football at my school, then jump over to a school in Orlando 25 miles away for baseball, then come back to us for football the next year.

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Simple solution: Completely remove athletics from public schools. Focus resources on, I don't know, educating.

This thread reminds me of the old Louis CK bit.

Apologies for the Tik tok link, but Texags really needs an embed feature for them.

https://www.tiktok.com/@kristen.guarino/video/7204547615818583339