TPPF to testify on online learning before the House Public Education Committee
Press Release April 15, 2013
Press Release April 15, 2013
Press Release April 15, 2013
"The Texas Public Policy Foundation welcomes the Texas Senate's overwhelming vote in favor of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Today's vote demonstrates that Texas legislators are heeding the American people's call for a revival of constitutional limitations on federal power. "The Senate resolution calls on the U.S. Congress to propose a constitutional...
Press Release April 11, 2013"With the passage of Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Dan Patrick, the Texas Senate took a strong step toward improving options for Texas parents and students seeking choice within the Texas public school system. With more than 100,000 students currently waiting to attend public open-enrollment charter schools in Texas, the need to allow more of...
Press Release April 11, 2013"The Economic Stabilization Fund, or Rainy Day Fund, represents billions of dollars taken from Texas taxpayers that would otherwise be sustaining our economy and prosperity. The imperative for the 83rd Texas Legislature is to return that money to Texans, rather than spend it on ongoing obligations that the state would ordinarily fund through general revenue. The...
Press Release April 11, 2013AUSTIN – Arlene Wohlgemuth, Director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, will testify on behalf of House Bill 3185 before the Federalism committee on Tuesday, April 10, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. or upon adjournment in room E2.036 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill prohibits the establishment of...
Press Release April 10, 2013AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation issued the following statement on Wednesday’s hearings regarding Senate Joint Resolution 64, which would set up a vote for a state constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling and provision of support for other types of gambling in Texas. “The establishment of gambling in Texas limited to a...
Press Release April 10, 2013AUSTIN – Matthew Ladner, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Education Policy, will testify on Senate Bill 23 before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. in room E1.028 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill is in favor of education tax credits. "An...
Press Release April 9, 2013This blog post originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 4/8/2013. At last, we come down to it. The great (education) battle of our time (the 83rd Texas Legislature). On Tuesday, April 9, the Texas Senate Education Committee will take up multiple private school choice bills, including but potentially not limited to statewide education scholarships and tax credits for businesses wishing to create education scholarships in their communities. It promises to be an intense hearing. We've recently seen a preview of just how difficult it is to enact education reform in Texas. Last Thursday (April 4), during a debate on Texas' budget for the upcoming biennium, the state's House dealt the school choice movement in Texas a blow. On a proposed amendment that would prevent taxpayer dollars from going toward private school scholarships, the House voted 103-43, in favor. Though the amendment may ultimately prove meaningless (its wording is sufficiently sloppy so that school choice programs could easily be created around it), it's symbolically troubling. The Texas House proved to be a substantial blockade against school choice back in 2007, and from the look of Thursday's vote, little has changed in 6 years. However, if you believe Texas needs private school choice, there may be reason for optimism. The Senate Education Committee has passed multiple public school choice measures, including an expansion of Texas' open-enrollment charter school cap. Whether such a bill can survive the Texas House (or even the entirety of the Senate floor) remains to be seen, but for now, it is moving with bipartisan support. Similarly encouraging has been the discussion on Texas' parent-trigger law. Parent-trigger laws allow parents of students on a given campus to, by majority vote, re-constitute a failing public school and allow a charter operator to take over that campus' administration. Texas has such a law on the books, but it required that a school fail for six consecutive years before the trigger could be pulled. The Senate Education Committee passed a bill to reduce that time period to three years, meaning a parent could actually use the trigger while their child was still attending the failing school. But none of those bills faced the opposition that the private school choice bills will on April 9. There are some in this state who will attempt to block any effort to give parents education options, because they view such efforts as an assault on public schools (even though they shouldn't). They are vocal, organized, and powerful. They will be out in force in the hearing. Suffice it to say, it will be lively. Texas education needs change. The reasons for it -- an embarrassing dropout rate, poor academic performance, rising education costs -- are clear. Our student body is growing at an annual rate so that we're roughly adding the state of Wyoming's public school system every year. Do we honestly believe that every one of the lower and middle income family in that group, hell, in all of Texas, is going to be best served by the public school that's physically closest to them? All parents, not just wealthy ones, need to have an opportunity to choose an education that best suits the needs of their child. The harsh reality is that every past attempt to bring school choice to Texas on a statewide scale has failed. This session's effort to bring things like education scholarships and tax credits into being here is an underdog's push. But it's a push worth making. A push that will improve education opportunities for all Texas students, and a push that could finally create some competition within our state's highly rigid education system. April 9 is a big day for the future of Texas schools. I wish this issue were less polarizing, less of a fight within the Texas education community. As it is one, I'm keeping in mind that sometimes the underdog wins.
Press Release April 9, 2013AUSTIN – Bill Peacock, Texas Public Policy Foundation’s vice president of research and director of the Center for Economic Freedom, will testify before the House Insurance Committee in support of House Bill 930 on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. in E2.026 at the Texas State Capitol. HB 930 will allow insurers to...
Press Release April 9, 2013AUSTIN – Experts from the Texas Public Policy Foundation will speak on four school-choice bills heard by the Texas Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. in room E2.028 of the Texas State Capitol. These bills would open up a number of avenues for school choice for Texas children and parents....
Press Release April 9, 2013AUSTIN – Matthew Ladner, Ph.D., Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, will testify on Senate Bill 23 before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. in room E1.028 of the Texas State Capitol. The bill is in favor of education tax credits. “An...
Press Release April 9, 2013