Texas schoolchildren and their families need an education funding system that allows them to seek the best possible education for their own unique needs.

The unavoidable fact is that parents are choosing to leave the public school system in Texas. This is overwhelmingly true in the large school districts in which no-cost options, including charter schools and homeschooling, are available. Today’s charge asks for “recommendations to ensure [that] parents and educators have the tools and resources needed to respond to the projected enrollment changes and ensure that every child has the best educational options available to learn.”
This leads to two primary recommendations centered around the same concept: Texas schoolchildren and their families need an education funding system that allows them to seek the best possible education for their own unique needs. Because the legislature and statewide leadership have done such an excellent job increasing public school funding over the past decade or more, our public schools are well-positioned to provide the highest quality education that they can to students who choose to be in public school. It is time to ensure that for those students who do not choose to be in public school because that choice would not be the best educational choice for them, the funding is there to support that decision. This can be achieved by creating a statewide education choice program and ensuring that the money follows the student, and is not retained in the public school system.
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