How To Pay For College In Texas
An extraordinary Texas leader has put forth a real solution to improve education in Texas. Texas students and parents will finally get accountability and performance from their education system; they’ll get a significant down payment on their child’s college education, and all Texans will enjoy quality education at a fair price. The new approach will reduce K-12 costs and increase teacher salaries.
Representative Debbie Riddle of Houston presented House Bill 3042 (HB 3042) this legislative session. It addresses deficiencies in Texas education. The bill provides $5,500 to every Texas child, empowering parents to acquire the best education available, regardless of their financial circumstances.
It gets better.
With HB 3042, Representative Riddle has solved one of the main problems with voucher programs: education costs rising to meet available funds. She’s done this by providing parents and students a strong incentive to become smart consumers of education.
Within HB 3042 lie the seeds of a world-class educational system for Texas children. If any of the $5,500 dollars available are not used to educate a Texas child in a given year, those dollars are retained in that child’s “Voucher Account.” The child’s retained dollars can then be used in subsequent years all the way through college.
Contrast this with Texas’s current public education system. We spend over $10,000 per child per year; there is no accountability; teachers’ unions own our schools; and nearly 50% of Texas schools can’t meet the Average Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
When our schools fail, the Texas Education Agency’s solution is to change the rules and pretend our children are learning.
When Texas Teachers’ Unions decide it’s in their best interest, they direct their members to abandon their classrooms.
HB 3042 changes the dynamic. HB 3042 empowers Texas parents. HB 3042 gives education consumers the “Power of the Purse.” HB 3042 corrects the injustices of our current system.
No one believes it costs over $10,000/year to educate a child. We pay this much because Texas has lost a decades-long war of attrition. We’ve permitted the unions and the Texas Educrat Establishment to vastly overcharge Texans for a second-rate educational system.
To turn the tables, we’ve got to change the rules. We need to personally empower generations of Texans to make a positive difference in their child’s education. That means providing parents both the resources to pay for a quality education and the incentive to become knowledgeable consumers of education. That means HB 3042.
Through Representative Riddle’s bill, every student gets a “Voucher Account.” Any funds not used in the allocated year aren’t lost; they go into the child’s account. If the family can negotiate a better deal than the $5,500/year tuition, the remaining money can fund the child’s college education.
Believe me, it will happen.
With HB 3042, Texans are no longer passive consumers of public education. We’re now empowered to make the best deal possible for our children. Plenty of people will help Texans make the right choice. The free market will foster “Education Aggregators” (EAs). These EAs will then work directly with parents to select the quality public, private, or parochial school that best meets their needs.
Consider this: if an EA had a parental base of 50,000 Texas children, those parents would control a revenue stream of $275 million a year (50,000 children x $5,500).
That permits parents to begin asking questions like:
Does it really cost $5,500/year to educate a 1st grader?
What if my child isn’t interested in athletics or band?
How much for just the academics?
HB 3042 unleashes the same market forces that drive the real cost of computers, automobiles, food, and entertainment down year after year.
With HB 3042, Texans can choose stellar educational options and still save thousands of dollars on their children’s college education. Rather than marching lockstep through a broken system, you’ll spend your money wisely on the education your children need to realize their dreams.
Time is short. The Texas Legislature will soon vote on which bill to move out of committee. Contact your state representative and ask him/her to make the right choice for Texas children. Ask them to support HB 3042.
To find your Texas state representative, Click Here.
Contact the Governor, your state senator, state representative, and your State Board of Education Representative today. Urge them to join Texas parents and Texas Educators working for our children. Urge them to support 100% Fully Funded School Choice in Texas.
