lead said:

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At this rate, this is gonna suck at dismantling public education.

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Was/is that the ultimate goal?
I thought the goal was to "try" to improve education....on ALL fronts.

My kids are already out of college, so no dog in this fight...

itsyourboypookie said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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Just out of curiosity, are any of you all looking to use the funds to better your school situation or just trying see if you can get the money to help pay for your current fees?

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We are in rural Texas. The school is a small Christian school that would get a huge boost in $$$ if parents get the vouchers. Right now we are constantly doing fundraisers to fund the school which is renting a church to hold classes. Our one employee who received the $$$ is now moving her kids to a private school in Waco she otherwise couldn't afford (if they get in).

We started our son in public school this year but after a month of him not doing great moved him to private. He's done great there. He's in kinder.

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Out of curiosity, but in kindergarten, how do you not do well? Not good at finger painting and making hand turkeys?

TexasAg95 said:

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like so many new programs from politicians, it sounded great in principle. They get it passed, they can say see we care about xyz. Then it's an absolute cluster when people actually try to use it and it really doesn't accomplish much. Kind of like Obamacare

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Yep.

I don't like the way public education is managed and there's certainly a lot of waste that goes into it...but the whole voucher promise was just the other side of the coin. In both cases (Democrats want more education funding a bottomless pit, Republicans want vouchers) I don't believe the govt is capable of managing it well.

Government at all levels is a burden to the people. We are over governed. Truly, those least governed are best governed.

For perhaps the first time ever I got extremely lucky and won the lottery, so despite it being a terrible system I'm now a big supporter.

TXAG 05 said:

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itsyourboypookie said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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Just out of curiosity, are any of you all looking to use the funds to better your school situation or just trying see if you can get the money to help pay for your current fees?

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We are in rural Texas. The school is a small Christian school that would get a huge boost in $$$ if parents get the vouchers. Right now we are constantly doing fundraisers to fund the school which is renting a church to hold classes. Our one employee who received the $$$ is now moving her kids to a private school in Waco she otherwise couldn't afford (if they get in).

We started our son in public school this year but after a month of him not doing great moved him to private. He's done great there. He's in kinder.

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Out of curiosity, but in kindergarten, how do you not do well? Not good at finger painting and making hand turkeys?

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Kindergarten is extremely important

Science Denier said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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If they hadn't put the income restrictions in it, then it becomes a tax break for rich people who send their kids to private schools. Then it never passes at all.
The bill was sold as a way for poor families to get their kids out of failing schools and into better schools. That's not going to happen either. All it does at best is give those at the margins of being able to afford private schools the chance to now afford it.

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$150k with a family of 4 isn't rich.

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Maybe not, but with 6 kids I've still socked away many millions by my early 50's making less than that for most of it.

But, I did choose to live somewhere with good public schools and affordable housing. Living downtown with bad schools and expensive housing, and then complaining that the government won't put your kids through private school is your problem, not mine.

lead said:

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At this rate, this is gonna suck at dismantling public education.

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Misread

Gots mines!

Good to see we're focusing money, time and resources on picking winners and losers instead of trying to educate as many Texans as possible, to a high degree.

Wonder why. Don't answer.

TXAG 05 said:

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Out of curiosity, but in kindergarten, how do you not do well? Not good at finger painting and making hand turkeys?

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Having just had a kindergartener this past year, I was surprised at what they covered and he learned. Pretty much full on phonics, reading, addition, subtraction, skip counting (multiplication precursor), handwriting, fractions, and grammar. Of course he's in a small private Episcopal school so I don't know what they cover in public.

As for what schools are receiving money, a lot of them are not participating in the program. There's a couple reasons for that. First, I think there is concern about a loss of control. Right now the rules are pretty loose, but what if you start accepting vouchers, then the state start mandating ciriculum or more importantly who you have to accept for admision. If you then roll back your participation, you will anger the parents who have vouchers. And the rule is (supposedly) that once you get vouchers, you are in for the future. No more lottery so long as you don't enroll in publich school.

The second problem with vouchers is financial. They won't cover all of the tuition. And on top of that the funding is released to the schools at three points. I think it's October, February, and May. Compare that to when tuition is often due. (Usually a couple months prior). It's the difference between going cash flow positive and cash flow negative. And if a student leaves before a funding release, I think the school eats the cost. For a small school hanging on, it's a lot of risk.

Personally, Tier 5 and in the 100,000+ tier. My favorite part of this is that in March there were only 4 tiers. I'm so far down the list, they had to invent a new tier to emphasise how much I am not getting any cash.

Quote:

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Having just had a kindergartener this past year, I was surprised at what they covered and he learned. Pretty much full on phonics

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Science Denier said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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If they hadn't put the income restrictions in it, then it becomes a tax break for rich people who send their kids to private schools. Then it never passes at all.
The bill was sold as a way for poor families to get their kids out of failing schools and into better schools. That's not going to happen either. All it does at best is give those at the margins of being able to afford private schools the chance to now afford it.

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$150k with a family of 4 isn't rich.

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So much this.

Come Out Roll said:

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lead said:

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At this rate, this is gonna suck at dismantling public education.

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Was/is that the ultimate goal?
I thought the goal was to "try" to improve education....on ALL fronts.

My kids are already out of college, so no dog in this fight...

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The stated goal was to improve education, but it's really just a state takeover of private and home schools. We should have just gotten a tax exemption.

Apparently, my son's mother is getting money and we're putting him back into a Christian school. He was there for pre-K & K and spent the last year in public schoo for 1stl. Public school is horrible, so we're putting him back into a private school for 2nd grade. I paid for it OOP before, and will pay any remainder this time. But public is mierda.

My kids are somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 on the waitlist
So there's a chance

SociallyConditionedAg said:

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Come Out Roll said:

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lead said:

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At this rate, this is gonna suck at dismantling public education.

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Was/is that the ultimate goal?
I thought the goal was to "try" to improve education....on ALL fronts.

My kids are already out of college, so no dog in this fight...

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The stated goal was to improve education, but it's really just a state takeover of private and home schools. We should have just gotten a tax exemption.

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We had a local state rep get voted out for actually explaining what this bill was, but the Abbott machine was so good at selling it as school choice a lot of folks fell for it. They really just thought they'd get to keep their ISD tax money to use wherever their kid went to school.
I had a couple friends that would argue about it with me and I'd always ask if they read the bill, of course they hadn't, now they're pissed. It's just a new billion dollar socialist program.

TXAG 05 said:

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itsyourboypookie said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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Just out of curiosity, are any of you all looking to use the funds to better your school situation or just trying see if you can get the money to help pay for your current fees?

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We are in rural Texas. The school is a small Christian school that would get a huge boost in $$$ if parents get the vouchers. Right now we are constantly doing fundraisers to fund the school which is renting a church to hold classes. Our one employee who received the $$$ is now moving her kids to a private school in Waco she otherwise couldn't afford (if they get in).

We started our son in public school this year but after a month of him not doing great moved him to private. He's done great there. He's in kinder.

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Out of curiosity, but in kindergarten, how do you not do well? Not good at finger painting and making hand turkeys?

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He was having beef with some kid named Mason, would get locked in on one learning module and not want to move to the next. He was testing well, but was labeled a distraction because he was having trouble with the free time you get when you already know how to read and write.

Now he's in private school learning Jesus and Latin.

If we are going to an AI-run society and don't need to create drones to run the production lines anymore - why do we need public education in its current state?

It appears to me the 'disabled' played the system. It was up to 30k in funding if your kid has a disability. Woman at office that received the funds has her kids marked as adhd. Which every boy could be diagnosed. Others in office that were declined didn't have a disability.

Her funding was capped at 10k each kid tho, rather than the 30k that was allowed for disabled kids.

Guess I'll get the son in front of a Dr that will call him adhd.

Quote:

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Your households approximate position on the waitlist is Above 100,000.
Your student's position on the waitlist was determined by their priority tier and the lottery as required by state law.
Based on the information submitted in your application, your household was assigned to priority tier 5.

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Had my last graduate from private school last year, just in time to be turned down by this program.

Reginald Cousins said:

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Science Denier said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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If they hadn't put the income restrictions in it, then it becomes a tax break for rich people who send their kids to private schools. Then it never passes at all.
The bill was sold as a way for poor families to get their kids out of failing schools and into better schools. That's not going to happen either. All it does at best is give those at the margins of being able to afford private schools the chance to now afford it.

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$150k with a family of 4 isn't rich.

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So much this.

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It's solidly upper middle class, with the potential to build significant wealth over time. But if you don't like the fact that you didn't get vouchers to pay for elementary school, you're gonna be shocked when you see what happens come college time. My advice - put your kids in a decent public school, find a good 529 plan, and ignore the pandering governor.

94chem said:

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Reginald Cousins said:

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Science Denier said:

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HTownAg98 said:

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If they hadn't put the income restrictions in it, then it becomes a tax break for rich people who send their kids to private schools. Then it never passes at all.
The bill was sold as a way for poor families to get their kids out of failing schools and into better schools. That's not going to happen either. All it does at best is give those at the margins of being able to afford private schools the chance to now afford it.

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$150k with a family of 4 isn't rich.

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So much this.

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It's solidly upper middle class, with the potential to build significant wealth over time. But if you don't like the fact that you didn't get vouchers to pay for elementary school, you're gonna be shocked when you see what happens come college time. My advice - put your kids in a decent public school, find a good 529 plan, and ignore the pandering governor.

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According to Ai, $150k is barely in the upper middle class. Solidly upper middle class is over $200k.


Middle is solidly.

Highly unlikely that many people here qualify. Bet the home school prom will be spectacular next year though.

lead said:

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At this rate, this is gonna suck at dismantling public education.

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Woohoo for dumbing down an already dumb society! What could possibly go wrong?

What's hilarious is that my kid was the only white boy in the class. Class had a Russian girl, Jordanian boy, ethnic Chinese boy from Taiwan, Hispanic boy (not really sure on the details there), educated Mexican / White girl, and a teacher from Hong Kong. Good chance half the class was not native English speakers. It's so weird that it wasn't a problem since everyone wanted to be there.

Full disclosure, I was against it because of what the government has done to higher education. This just seemed like inflationary pressure on those of us making it work. But since it passed, it would have been nice to try to offset that negative with getting some of the property taxes back. But, no dice.

SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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Nope. Tier 3. 30k or something.

5 kids already in catholic school. All I wanted was a break on my property taxes. Instead we got this cluster.

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You not getting something you wanted doesn't make it a cluster. Besides, it JUST STARTED. I doubt it was going to be at peak operation immediately.

Sheesh.

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I didn't want or ask for this system. And it is a cluster. Schools made it a requisite that families enroll into this or you aren't eligible for any discounts/aid from the schools private funds. I appreciate every break we get, but also think that property tax reform and a maybe a slight discount on those taxes since our family isn't using the public system at all, would have been better.

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You're right that it is a cluster. If a parent with five kids (not picking on you) were to get the basic estimated allotment of around $10k, that means they'd receive $50k. The top top of 1% of property owners pay that much in taxes and even less pay that much in ISD only taxes.

The average Texas homeowner (who owns a home), pays about $5k in property taxes to all entities. Any voucher program that gives a homeowner more than they pay in school district taxes, is redistribution of wealth. Welfare. Communism. Whatever. Its not conservative.

Greener Acres said:

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SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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Nope. Tier 3. 30k or something.

5 kids already in catholic school. All I wanted was a break on my property taxes. Instead we got this cluster.

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You not getting something you wanted doesn't make it a cluster. Besides, it JUST STARTED. I doubt it was going to be at peak operation immediately.

Sheesh.

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I didn't want or ask for this system. And it is a cluster. Schools made it a requisite that families enroll into this or you aren't eligible for any discounts/aid from the schools private funds. I appreciate every break we get, but also think that property tax reform and a maybe a slight discount on those taxes since our family isn't using the public system at all, would have been better.

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You're right that it is a cluster. If a parent with five kids (not picking on you) were to get the basic estimated allotment of around $10k, that means they'd receive $50k. The top top of 1% of property owners pay that much in taxes and even less pay that much in ISD only taxes.

The average Texas homeowner (who owns a home), pays about $5k in property taxes to all entities. Any voucher program that gives a homeowner more than they pay in school district taxes, is redistribution of wealth. Welfare. Communism. Whatever. Its not conservative.

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This argument has never really stood up to me considering the people using it usually fine with the exact same scenario happening via the public school system. The percentage of people who pay in enough in property taxes to their local ISD to cover the cost of their kids portion of education costs is basically zero. Just on the M&O, Texas spends $13k on average per student. The average M&O rate is 0.9 per $100 of property value. That means that unless a family with only a single child has a property value of $1,500,000 AFTER the current homestead exemption they are almost certainly extracting more than they put into the system.

Greener Acres said:

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SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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91AggieLawyer said:

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SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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Nope. Tier 3. 30k or something.

5 kids already in catholic school. All I wanted was a break on my property taxes. Instead we got this cluster.

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You not getting something you wanted doesn't make it a cluster. Besides, it JUST STARTED. I doubt it was going to be at peak operation immediately.

Sheesh.

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I didn't want or ask for this system. And it is a cluster. Schools made it a requisite that families enroll into this or you aren't eligible for any discounts/aid from the schools private funds. I appreciate every break we get, but also think that property tax reform and a maybe a slight discount on those taxes since our family isn't using the public system at all, would have been better.

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You're right that it is a cluster. If a parent with five kids (not picking on you) were to get the basic estimated allotment of around $10k, that means they'd receive $50k. The top top of 1% of property owners pay that much in taxes and even less pay that much in ISD only taxes.

The average Texas homeowner (who owns a home), pays about $5k in property taxes to all entities. Any voucher program that gives a homeowner more than they pay in school district taxes, is redistribution of wealth. Welfare. Communism. Whatever. Its not conservative.

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I completely agree. I would not want nor expect to get 10k/kid. Just a simple reduction in my property taxes, as I am already providing the state of discount of service by paying full tax and not sending any kids to public school.

itsyourboypookie said:

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Guess I'll get the son in front of a Dr that will call him adhd.

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Won't do you any good. The "disability" portion only applies to students that have an IEP. And the only people that can create an IEP is a school district. What I only learned later is that you don't have to be enrolled in school to have them create an IEP, only be a resident of the school district. There is also a waiting list to have one created. If you think you can get one, look into it now to get on the schedule.

Based on the emails I read tier 1 was disability and tier 2 were income based then above that income level it was lottery based.

Is that not the case?

Like any government program that is a good idea (and so few of them are) the execution is terrible and complete BS.

We would be the lowest tier (or highest # depending on how you look at it), will never see one dime. It should be very, very simple and easy. Both of my boys go to private school, here is my ISD property tax bill, so cut my voucher check (to me or to the school). My income level, address, race, tax bracket, etc., etc. should not matter and should not preclude me from benefitting from this when I pay so much to the ISD.

It's not really changing much for those that actually pay the largest $$ to the ISD, the requirements of the program are such that you will never see a penny of benefit for it.

41,000 vouchers went to children with disabilities. 28k to the disabled kids, the rest were siblings.

That's a wild stat

https://educationfreedom.texas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Lottery-Week-Update.pdf

This was always a terrible patch job meant to fool voters. The people who voted for it get nothing. The schools that participate will now be jacking up prices to pay for people who do t pay property taxes while the taxpayers pay the tuition.