Writing for the San Antonio Current, Michael Karlis sees some real problems with Governor Greg Abbott’s push for Texas school vouchers.
Politicians lie. Always have.
However, it looks like Trump’s second term has emboldened certain GOP politicos, especially in Texas, to fire off increasingly bold falsehoods with an increasing lack of hesitancy.
Take Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s employed some stunning whoppers in recent weeks as forges ahead with his campaign to force school vouchers on Texans, whether they want them or not.
In a Feb. 13 tweet, for example, Abbott declared “school choice doesn’t take a penny from public schools.”
Of course, that’s utter bullshit. Academic researchers, public school advocates and common sense all tell us that if parents are incentivized to pull their kids out of public schools and stick them in private ones, public school districts lose money. After all, public school funding in Texas is based on enrollment and attendance.
Don’t believe it? That’s fine, because Abbott himself admitted during the same week that his school voucher plan — which will allocate $10,000 in taxpayer funds for families who opt to enroll their kids in private campuses — will lead to less funding for public schools.
“The people ‘defunding’ public schools are PARENTS choosing a better option than what their assigned school provides,” Abbott wrote in a separate Feb. 12 tweet. “When they leave, the funding for that child leaves too. Democrats want to FORCE families to stay in government mandated schools against their will.”
So, which is it, governor? Do vouchers drain money to public schools or don’t they?
Abbott was caught in another whopper earlier this month during a pro-school voucher rally in Athens, Texas. During that appearance, he spun an improbable — read “untrue” — tale about a public school principal in Dallas who quit her job and moved to Amarillo because her previous district banned the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
“She said the school where she came from, they were not doing that anymore,” Abbott recalled with such passion it almost sounded like he’s bought into his own falsehood. “She believed in patriotism and knew that was a fundamental tenet of educating our kids, so she moved out to Amarillo to do that.”
Here’s the problem: students in Texas public schools have been required by state law since 2017 to say the Pledge of Allegiance — both to the U.S. flag and the Texas flag.
