I understand all of the objections to vouchers (I'm in that camp), but can someone please provide the rationale for vouchers from those that support them? I'm struggling to see the upside for the vast majority of Texans.
1. From the standpoint of Greg Abbott or one of our other elected state or local officials who is pushing for this, what is the sales pitch in favor of it? Are they saying that private schools are inherently better equipped to provide education than public schools? Isn't that an admission of failure on the part of The State of Texas that they are in control of? How does someone rationalize that? Are they acknowledging that only a small percentage of students will even receive a voucher? What do they claim will be the benefit for everyone else who doesn't receive or qualify for a voucher? Are they at least giving lipspeak to efforts to simultaneously put more money into public schools, or are they just admitting that public schools are failing and nothing can be done?
2. From the standpoint of Tim Dunn or the Wilks brothers or other billionaires who are pushing for these changes, what are they proposing as the upside? Why do they want this?
3. For the families living in any rural or semi-rural community with few or no private school options, what do they get out of it? What good does a private school voucher do for a family with no available private schools? What is Greg Abbott claiming their upside will be? Creation of new private schools to fill that gap? Will anything also be done to help their struggling small town school districts? Surely, many of these communities are filled with Republican voters who support this guy, but this shift seems to directly harm his voter base.
4. For the families who already send their kids to private school, or who plan to in the future, but make too much money to qualify for a voucher, what is the upside? Additional applicants to their existing private school so the rates go up or their kid may not get accepted? How is the state claiming this will benefit them?
Sorry, I know that's a ton of questions, but this entire situation is really hard to understand. If I saw a friend lighting money on fire or cutting off their own finger, I would have a similar list of ridiculous questions.