Giving parents the choice of which school to send their kids to is the most efficient way to run the education system in America, said John Stossell, host of ABC's "20/20" and "Give Me A Break," at a rally at the Texas Capitol Wednesday.
Texans For School Choice sponsored the rally to encourage the Legislature to support parental choice in education for Texas students. Featured speakers were John Stossell, Catholic Bishop Gregory Aymond, Rabbi Aryeh Feigenbaum of Dallas and Rebeca Nieves Huffman, president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options.
"The idea here is that if you give parents a choice on where to send their children to school, whether it be through vouchers or tax credits, then the schools that aren't performing well will either be forced to improve or shut down," said Arthur DiBianca, assistant director of the Libertarian Party of Texas. "With the continued public school monopoly the government has, we will continue to receive poor education service."
Seven states, including Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania have implemented school choice bills through tax credits or deductions for education expenses.
Various activist groups believe a well-written school choice bill would help curb the state's 60-percent high school dropout rate for black, Hispanic and low-income students.
"This is not an attack on public schools, and our mission is not to destroy them," said Howard Fuller, board chairman of the Black Alliance For Educational Options and former superintendent of the Milwaukee School District. "This will only make public schools stronger and provide students with the best education possible."
The Texas Federation of Teachers, however, believes school choice is not in the best interest of public school students.
"A family already has a choice within a district on where to send their kids, and they don't need a voucher to do so," said Linda Bridges, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers. "School choice bills are pushed by people who solely want private and religious-based schools to benefit and it will drain money from our Texas public education system that is already underfunded."
Bridges stressed that every time a school choice bill has been presented to the Texas Legislature, it has been voted down and is thus "not the will of the people."
A large focus of the rally was speculation as to how inefficient the Texas state government is with taxes going toward education.
"Nobody knows where the money goes in government monopolies," said Stossell, who is known for libertarian political philosophies. He then went on to compare the inefficient government monopoly on education in the United States with the socialist nation of the Soviet Union; citing how government monopolies caused certain industries to stagnate.
"Competition makes everything better," Stossell said. "It makes movies, music, food and cell phones better. So why has our country refused to let our school system be competitive?"
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