“There’s like 1,000 school districts … and out of every school district in the state of Texas, Edgewood was the one selected,” said former teacher Diana Herrera. “So why did they come to Edgewood? The word was because they wanted to destroy us.”
challenged the funding system that allowed the inequity to exist, resulting in a more equitable system that operates today after a lengthy legal battle.
It was Edgewood’s fame and notoriety, Herrera said, that caught the attention of the Children’s Education Opportunity Foundation and San Antonio businessman James Leininger, who made his multimillion-dollar fortune founding medical devices company Kinetic Concepts, which focuses on wound care. However, the analysis also found that some voucher users would not have attended EISD schools anyway, and many moved to EISD or falsified their addresses to become voucher users. That means the enrollment loss may have occurred regardless of the voucher experiment.
Herrera remembers the district cutting resources, expanding class sizes by combining smaller classes and cutting positions as the program expanded. Due to the loss of state per pupil funding, EISD revenue growth and revenue per pupil growth were slightly below those of the control districts. EISD’s net growth in graduation rates from 1998 to 2007 was 13.9%. Only one control district saw an increase in graduation rates between 1998 and 2007. Despite the financial losses, the academic collapse feared at the outset of the program never materialized.
Leaders of the school in the first years of the program decried the notion that it was responsible for the uptick in scores. Charter schools aren’t private, so vouchers would not have compelled students to attend them, but looking back, Mena told the San Antonio Report that the voucher experiment “opened the door” for the thousands of students who left the district.
By 2011, just over 1,000 students had withdrawn from EISD. In the 2022-23 school year, 3,656 students in the district are attending charter schools, according to TEA data. Mena, who is retired but returns to help out at some schools, said she had seen a noticeable decline in students’ ability to grasp concepts, even before the pandemic compounded those issues. Proponents of the program argue that the losses took place due to the program ending, not the vouchers being offered in the first place.
Manuel Garza, a well-known education advocate who also played a key role in the 1968 walkout, was on the Edgewood school board from 1996 to 2000. Some students tried to continue but were left with piles of debt that, according to a 2010 Express-News article, kept them from getting diplomas. Teachers say some students left out
In the same video, Yolanda Molina, a principal for the Christian Academy, said the school did remove two students since they couldn’t have their needs met. “Horizon didn’t limit who could take part in the program based on special needs,” she said. “The difficulty that parents would have is finding a school where they could use the voucher that would address the needs of their child.”
When students returned to the district, Pacheco and other teachers had to remedy those gaps in learning. “There were a few church-related schools that were nondenominational that seemed to pop up overnight,” she told the Report. “They didn’t necessarily have educators. They didn’t necessarily have an administrative staff that knew how to run a school.”Abbott has said that the state should trust parents to evaluate programs and make their own choice. Many parents were able to have their children attend dream schools as a result of the vouchers.
According to school documents obtained by the Report, the number of parent volunteer hours in Edgewood ballooned from 4,626 in 1999 to 13,336 in 2001, the first years of the program. House Republicans and Democrats are both hesitant to adopt a private school choice policy, which has been introducedMore recent studies have produced a mix of positive, negative and neutral results from different types of voucher programs.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Editorial: In Harlandale, a tough vote that put kids firstFaced with a dire financial crisis, Harlandale ISD trustees rightfully voted to close four elementary schools. There’s more work ahead.
Read more »
House wins first round of multi-round voucher fightThe Texas House has won the first round of the fight over private school vouchers this session, but the debate will continue in the House next week and in final negotiations over the budget.
Read more »
We recommend in the race for DeSoto ISD Place 3A school district is only as strong as its leadership, and in the contest for the Place 3 seat on the DeSoto school board, voters have a choice of two...
Read more »
We recommend in the race for DeSoto ISD, Place 5While DeSoto ISD has weathered a series of controversies in recent years, the school board that emerged from the fallout has done hard work to try to right...
Read more »
VETTING PROCESS BEGINS: TEA receives 374 applications for Board of Managers following Houston ISD takeoverThe Texas Education Agency announced on Friday the number of applications that were received during their Board of Managers application and selection process following the announcement of the takeover of Houston ISD.
Read more »
Serial Killer Rumors, School Voucher Bill: The top 10 headlines in San Antonio this weekWhile a story looking at online speculation about a possible Austin serial killer was our most-read article, lots of folks read up on school vouchers as well. SanAntonio SanAntonioTX SanAntonioTX Texas Austin txlege
Read more »