How To Pay For College In Texas

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 the cost of K12 and increase teacher salaries.

Representative Debbie Riddle of Houston presented House Bill 3042 (HB 3042) this legislative session.  It is the solution for the 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 conquered one of the principal problems with voucher programs, i.e. the tendency for the cost of education to rise to the cost of the money available.  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 our current system of public education in Texas.  We spend over $10,000/year per child, there is no accountability, the 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. Click Here.

When Texas Teacher’s Unions decide it’s in their best interest, their members are directed to abandon their classrooms.  Click Here.

HB 3042 changes the dynamic.  HB 3042 empowers Texas parents.  HB 3042 provides the “Power of the Purse” to education consumers.  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 the genius of Representative Riddle’s bill, every student is provided with a “Voucher Account.”  Any funds that are not consumed in the year allocated are not lost; they go into the child’s account.  If the family can negotiate a better deal than the $5,500/year tuition, the remaining monies can be used to 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.  There will be plenty of people to help Texans make the right choice.  The free market will foster “Education Aggregators.” (EA).  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 containing 50,000 Texas children, those parents now control a revenue stream of  $275 million dollars 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?

The provisions of HB 3042 unleash the same market forces that drive the real cost of computers, automobiles, food and entertainment down year after year after year.

With HB 3042, Texans will select stellar educational options and still save thousands of dollars towards their children’s college education.  Rather than marching lock step 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 decides which bill to vote out of committee very soon.  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.

Be sure to register for Texas Journal Updates.  Updates are your tool to work towards a better life for all Texas children.  To register, click on the following image.

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