By james art President Ronald Reagan advised us to trust but verify. State Rep. Dustin Burroughs recently wrote an op-ed about school closing policies in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. With an extraordinary amount of misleading statements in his material, Texans who read it should certainly check out what Rep. Burroughs has written. While there are over a dozen points of contention, here are some of the biggest concerns to address.
Burroughs called the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) a “gang.” The truth is that the TASB is simply a group whose membership mirrors the school board members that Texas voters elect each year. This gives our elected school board members a platform to communicate with each other and to share ideas on how to best educate our students. TASB is always advocating for our students and local ISDs.
Contrary to Burroughs’ conspiracy theory, the real reason school funding didn’t pass last session was because the voucher crowd refused to separate school funding (including teacher pay raises) from the voucher program. When the bipartisan majority voted to separate those two issues, the bill’s author sent the entire bill back to committee, where it died. Thus, he refused to allow the Texas House to vote on the school funding that would have passed.
Burroughs proposed that Texas “allow school choice (without taking any money from local districts).” This is beyond disingenuous. The truth is, if school vouchers had passed while we had an unprecedented $32 billion budget surplus, they would not have cut public school funding in the first place. But for just a few years, as evidenced by severe budget cuts since 2011, the program could only survive by taking money away from our public schools. As a breeder, I could double or triple my breeding rate during a rainy season (budget surplus), but that would not be a conservative or wise decision, and it would certainly not be sustainable during a drought (budget deficit) like what happened in 2011. The Conservatives pride themselves on responsible budgeting, but vouchers create outrageous costs. Just look at the states where vouchers have blown up budgets by expanding eligibility year after year. It is hardly responsible to create a program without knowing how much it will drain from public education and the entire state budget. Conservatives should make decisions based on the long-term economic impacts of the massive spending of a new entitlement program, not the short-term effects during a time of unprecedented surplus.
Burroughs refers to “false school financial fears” immediately after describing real school financial problems. He later spoke of “…ESAs that would enable parents of the most vulnerable Texas students…” Would the “most vulnerable Texas students” include foster youth and be prioritized and guaranteed admission? Will federal protections be guaranteed to special education students? Will every private school give disadvantaged students free transport, uniforms and food? And given the use of public funding, will private schools open their records and results to public scrutiny?
If data from other states’ voucher programs is considered, the fact is that wealthy families already in the private education sector will benefit disproportionately from these government coupons.
Did you know that over 150 counties in Texas do not have a single private school? Big cities in Texas are already saturated with charter schools that are 100% funded by the state. And even though the big cities are basically where they are, we ALL pay for them. What do you think happens when vouchers are released here? People in the 150 counties without private schools will once again subsidize “school choice” for kids in the big city, but not in their backyard. Or worse, fly-by-night quacks will come to rural Texas to open failing, low-performing private schools to make money off Texas taxpayers.
The continued erosion of local control for school districts and the continued growth of bureaucracy across the country are not conservative. Limiting government, both federal and state, and maintaining local control is a long-standing conservative principle. Why is a growing state government and bureaucracy more acceptable than the exponential growth of our federal government?
Vouchers lead to more centralized control of education funding, shifting resources from local oversight to state-level mandates. True conservatism supports decentralization and placing control in the hands of local communities, not distant bureaucrats.
The insidious push to weaken local government and destroy public education is the direct result of a massive power play by radical billionaire oligarchs to take control of Texas and our federal government.
Are Rep. Burrows and his ilk in Austin really concerned about “taxpayer funded lobbying” by TASB? Or are they horrified by the free flow of information back to voters that exposes the ongoing power grab and eventual privatization of our public schools?
Representative Burroughs, as chairman of the Calendars Committee, is unlikely to face pushback from lawmakers. He has the power to prevent any bill from moving forward. As a legislator nearing the end of my political career, I am free to “sing like a canary” about the systemic corruption that permeates Texas government and speak for like-minded people constrained by political reality.
The rural Republicans who voted to eliminate the voucher program from HB 1 did not vote against school funding. Quite the opposite; HB 1 was never brought up for a vote after eliminating vouchers via a floor amendment. School funding was held hostage by vouchers. HB 1 has many elements that need to be modified, but if it went to the floor without vouchers, it would easily pass. Speaker Burroughs and Governor Abbott know this, but they continue to spread misinformation about what actually happened on the House floor.
The real Texas gangsters are funded and/or controlled by the Dunn/Wilkes cartel. Their ultimate goal is the privatization and destruction of our Texas public schools. They have no problem finding willing accomplices in the Texas Legislature who seek political success rather than serving their district. Vouchers are just the first step toward eliminating public schools altogether. Maybe accusing others of being gangsters is just an attempt to distract voters from the real mob activity going on at the highest levels of Texas government?
We mustn’t forget that in 2019, Burroughs secretly met with then-Speaker Dennis Bohnen and Michael Quinn Sullivan, publisher of the Dunn & Wilks mouthpiece, Texas Scorecard. A transcript of the meeting revealed that Burroughs suggested that Sullivan and his team target ten effective Republican lawmakers in the next primary season — the ten they cannot control. Is it a coincidence that many of the rural Republicans targeted by Abbott, Dunn & Wilks and out-of-state mega-billionaires in this year’s primary were among the same group Burroughs expressed disdain for in 2019?
I encourage voters to seek the truth. Check out what’s posted. I also urge voters who recognize the importance of Texas public schools to vote only for candidates who support public education. Vote for your community over party.
Glen Rogers, R-Graford, represents District 60 in the Texas House of Representatives. His service in the Texas House of Representatives will end in January.