AgGrad99 said:

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Fixed costs such as buildings, utilities, etc, account for larger % of rural budgets because they have a smaller local tax base. Basically, rural districts have less "play money" to use in their budgets. School district budgets are not fully funded by the state.

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But money is redistributed across the state.

Also, there is less likelihood, if at all in most rural communities, of students attending an alternate private school.

Not meaning to argue. Just trying to understand the fear.

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Money is only redistributed away from wealthier districts via "recapture" - commonly known as the Robin Hood plan. Most districts in Texas keep the local tax base in full and are then subsidized by the state via these recaptured funds.

I don't know why someone in Comstock ISD (out near Big Bend NP) would worry about vouchers taking away funding from the district though I could see why a Super in Royal ISD (Brookshire) would be concerned because it wouldn't be too difficult for a parent to enroll their kid in neighboring Katy ISD.

As previously stated on this thread, even with vouchers, it's likely not very profitable to open a private or charter school in most rural districts - but that is the prevalent excuse against vouchers used by rural reps.

Urban districts may think vouchers could help return some of the "recaptured" funding even if they are more susceptible to competition. If this is the case, then these districts would be more inclined to improve in order to attract students thus proving vouchers successful.

has anyone looked at how you actually qualify to get these monies?

There was $1.5bn put in there. Per google, there are 5.5mm children in Texas public schools.

Here's your voucher for $271.

So for this money to do ANYTHING to help someone actually pay for private school... you'd need, say.. $10k? At least. That's 150,000 students.

Congratulations to the 2.7% of students in Texas. Take a wild guess how long the line is going to be and how selective that 2.7% is going to be. Think it's going to be for the white, dual-parent households?

This is just another welfare program.

shiftyandquick said:

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Rural families are twice as likely to be homeschoolers as their urban and suburban counterparts; about 5 percent of rural students are homeschooled.

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Okay, let's go with that number. So the rural schools will receive 95% of their current funding, while serving 95% of the students.

Doesn't seem like a big problem.

CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Rural families are twice as likely to be homeschoolers as their urban and suburban counterparts; about 5 percent of rural students are homeschooled.

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Okay, let's go with that number. So the rural schools will receive 95% of their current funding, while serving 95% of the students.

Doesn't seem like a big problem.

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if you had a 5% budget cut to teach the same # of students (or more), that's a huge problem. But they voted for it, so I guess they are good with it.

Rodgers made some noise with this editorial in the Dallas Morning News where he said the real aim here of Abbott and company is to harm public schools.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2026/01/23/rogers-go-ahead-close-public-schools/

It appears to be a restricted program. Like most gubbnit programs, the poorer you are, the more help.

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Most participating families will receive approximately $10,300 per year for each child enrolled in the program. This amount represents 85% of what public schools receive through state and local funding per student....

Nearly all Texas school-age children can apply for the program, including students already attending private schools. The state allocated $1 billion for the first two years, with the program capped at approximately 90,000 students initially.

If applications exceed available funding, the state will use a lottery system with the following priority tiers:

• Students with disabilities from families earning at or below $160,000 annually (500% of the federal poverty level for a family of four)
• Families earning at or below $64,300 annually (200% of the poverty level)
• Families earning between $64,300 and $160,000 annually
• Families earning above $160,000 (limited to 20% of total program budget)

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I can't vouch for the accuracy of the article, but here's the link

https://www.parentherald.com/articles/236800/20251223/texas-school-voucher-program-what-parents-should-know-including-requirements-provisions.htm

CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Rural families are twice as likely to be homeschoolers as their urban and suburban counterparts; about 5 percent of rural students are homeschooled.

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Okay, let's go with that number. So the rural schools will receive 95% of their current funding, while serving 95% of the students.

Doesn't seem like a big problem.

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They are probably concerned that 5% will increase if the parents get paid to teach.

Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

shiftyandquick said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Rural families are twice as likely to be homeschoolers as their urban and suburban counterparts; about 5 percent of rural students are homeschooled.

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Okay, let's go with that number. So the rural schools will receive 95% of their current funding, while serving 95% of the students.

Doesn't seem like a big problem.

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if you had a 5% budget cut to teach the same # of students (or more), that's a huge problem. But they voted for it, so I guess they are good with it.

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Why would they have more students?

If 5% are to be home schooled, that's 5% that aren't in school. They get paid by how many attend.

And using the 5% figure, they are getting 95% of the state funding they previously got, and 100% of the local money, to teach 95% of the kids.

BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

shiftyandquick said:

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AgGrad99 said:

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Fixed costs such as buildings, utilities, etc, account for larger % of rural budgets because they have a smaller local tax base. Basically, rural districts have less "play money" to use in their budgets. School district budgets are not fully funded by the state.

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But money is redistributed across the state.

Also, there is less likelihood, if at all in most rural communities, of students attending an alternate private school.

Not meaning to argue. Just trying to understand the fear.

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Even if rural areas don't have private schools, they may have a lot of homeschoolers. And those folks will get voucher money to homeschool.

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But again, that's not unique to rural districts.

Actually a lot of home schoolers, like us, are opting not to apply for the vouchers. Some stipulations where the state can come in and decide if what we are teaching meets their qualifications. Which is exactly why we are homeschooling to begin with.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Even if rural areas don't have private schools, they may have a lot of homeschoolers.

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They may. They may not.

I would suspect home schooling is a lot less common in rural areas, as the school is usually the center of the community's social life.

And home schoolers usually band together, so you would need several families to home school for the best outcome.

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A lot of evangelical Christians homeschool their children. I don't think living in a rural area makes any difference in their decision to homeschool or not. My cousin and his family have lived in rural parts of Texas and now live in a rural part of Idaho. His wife was home schooled and she has always home schooled their kids. Their church is the center of their life. There are a lot of homeschool families at their church in Idaho and the churches they attended in Texas. It seems any social activities for their kids is facilitated by the church.

shiftyandquick said:

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Rodgers made some noise with this editorial in the Dallas Morning News where he said the real aim here of Abbott and company is to harm public schools.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2026/01/23/rogers-go-ahead-close-public-schools/

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He might be right. I know that Abbott's daughter attended private school in Texas. Then she attended college at USC in California. I always thought Abbott was a hypocrite for letting his daughter go to college in California. He's always been beaching about woke California, but then allows his daughter to spend four years living there. Makes no sense to me.

murphyag said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Rodgers made some noise with this editorial in the Dallas Morning News where he said the real aim here of Abbott and company is to harm public schools.

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2026/01/23/rogers-go-ahead-close-public-schools/

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He might be right. I know that Abbott's daughter attended private school in Texas. Then she attended college at USC in California. I always thought Abbott was a hypocrite for letting his daughter go to college in California. He's always been beaching about woke California, but then allows his daughter to spend four years living there. Makes no sense to me.

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it makes a lot more sense when you realize it's performance art and grifting, copying DeSantis, and doing what the billionaire activists tell you to do.

At most, a private school gets my money for 12 years. Then my kid graduates, and my funding is removed. Somehow they are able to provide quality education and extra-curriculars, while only charging me for the years my child uses their services.

Public schools get my money, and everyone else's money, whether they have school-aged kids or not, for decades. And somehow, they still cant operate within a budget, and they sound the fear alarm if 5% of their funding could possibly be reduced. There is something very wrong with the burden it puts on our residents.

I dont know what I think about vouchers. But I do know the public districts have us over a barrel, and spending is beyond what has been proven to be necessary. I tend to think more choice, and pressure for public districts to improve, is not a bad thing.

reineraggie09 said:

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Actually a lot of home schoolers, like us, are opting not to apply for the vouchers. Some stipulations where the state can come in and decide if what we are teaching meets their qualifications. Which is exactly why we are homeschooling to begin with.

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I have friends that lived in DFW. Homeschoolers. They moved to Arizona specifically because they would get money from the state as homeschoolers. This was a couple years ago. Maybe they would have stayed if the new law had been in place where they could get paid in Texas.

If you're homeschooling 4 kids, and now you have 40k per year from the state coming in, that can be your full-time job for a poorer family. Now you have food on the table, and you're just doing the schooling stuff you were doing before the new law.

DeschutesAg said:

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Glen is a good person. He's an old Ag and an "old school" rural county conservative. Rancher and DVM up around Palo Pinto county. Served in the state legislature for awhile. Has deep hands-on expertise in vet medicine, cows, ranching. Even taught vet med somewhere.

I forget the exact name of the org or PAC funded by the billionaires who are connected at the hip with Paxton, Abbott, and that crowd. Texas Scorecard or something like that.
My understanding is they don't like Glen because he is honest and because he opposed vouchers since many rural public schools in Tx will be negatively affected by them.

Glen was asked to serve on some kind of A&M vet medicine committee. He said yes. Then that Scorecard group heard about it. They pulled strings, and voila, the A&M interim university president withdrew the invite.

To my generation of old greyhaired rural-county-raised Ags, that is not how the A&M we knew back in the 1960s & 1970s operated. But Ags like Earl Rudder, Bum Bright, and Dick Hervey who could place a single phone call and stop such shenanigans are long gone.

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The problem A&M is facing now is that too many non-Aggies are involved in Texas A&M's affairs. Abbott, Dunn, and the Wilkes brothers should never have been given so much access to inner workings of our school. I never thought I'd see the day when a t-sip, a Tech grad, and two brothers who never went to college would have so much influence over the Board of Regents, Interim President, and Chancellor at Texas A&M.

King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

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I meant in context to the use of the esa? Where do you think the lege messed up, where would you like people to use their esa's if not private schools? Take them to other public school districts? You can already transfer to other school districts (contingent on their approval), and they also have the ability to charge tuition.

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I'd like to see the districts compete with each other. I'd also like to see schools within the districts compete against each other. Charter and Magnet schools are a good way to promote this competition. I'd even go as far as turning all public schools into some form of a charter or magnet school.

Abbott's bulldozing was the only way to get vouchers through. I'm not completely against them and now that we have them we need to make them work for the regular folks, not just the vendors who are making 10s of millions off of administering the program.

With that said, it was a sad day for Republican governance when Glenn Rogers was primaried out of his texas house seat. We need smart, able problem solvers like Rogers to keep the Republican brand strong in Texas. I fear that the Rs have cooked their goose and we'll start seeing many statewide, state rep, and state senate seats fall to the evil democrats and who the heck knows what the democrats will do to alter our state to be more like California.

BTKAG97 said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

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To be fair, these 'public funds' are taken from private individuals.

King of the Dairy Queen said:

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the kind of republicans we need are the ones who fight the national teachers unions tooth and nail, not the one's who think public education should serve as an employment program for adults.

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Regardless of our shared thoughts on public sector unions like teachers unions, all politics are local and ISDs in Texas hold sizable voting blocks of ISD employees who decide our elections. Taking a sledge hammer to them is a bad move if you want to get votes.

Damien Talarico is going to beat the heck outta Paxton in the US Senate race making Cornyn's senate seat the first fatality of the MAGA right Republicans in Texas. My prediction.

BTKAG97 said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

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Then parents, who do not send their kids to public schools, should be a complete refund on the portion of their taxes that fund public schools.

aTmAg said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Quote:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

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Then parents, who do not send their kids to public schools, should be a complete refund on the portion of their taxes that fund public schools.

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How much do I get for not having kids?

sanangelo said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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the kind of republicans we need are the ones who fight the national teachers unions tooth and nail, not the one's who think public education should serve as an employment program for adults.

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Regardless of our shared thoughts on public sector unions like teachers unions, all politics are local and ISDs in Texas hold sizable voting blocks of ISD employees who decide our elections. Taking a sledge hammer to them is a bad move if you want to get votes.

Damien Talarico is going to beat the heck outta Paxton in the US Senate race making Cornyn's senate seat the first fatality of the MAGA right Republicans in Texas. My prediction.

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You sure like using emotionally charged words a lot. I'm still curious how you think that Texas Scorecard link was a hit piece. Cannot quite figure that out. It's especially odd to call such a tame article a hit piece after you call anyone who didn't vote how you wanted them to ignorant. I would expect someone that pretends to be a journalist to hold themselves to a higher standard.

BTKAG97 said:

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King of the Dairy Queen said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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BTKAG97 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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shiftyandquick said:

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Simple solution is to restrict voucher acceptance to public schools. Homeschooling should be considered private education.

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Private school can get vouchers, can't they?

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Yes, and that's where the legislators screwed up.

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Explain?

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Public funds should go to public schools. Many may disagree by claiming private schools are needed to make public schools compete by improvement. I'm just not a proponent of subsidizing expensive private schools nor am I proponent of subsidies in general.

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I am mixed on vouchers, but I would argue that public funds need to go to public education . If the public school is failing the the students and taxpayers in a district there should be an alternative pay to still get an education.

Does the voucher program fix that? I guess we will find out.