San Antonio enterprise leaders have vowed to foyer state legislators in help of funding public schooling and limiting faculty voucher payments this legislative session.
Not solely have public faculties not acquired elevated funding from the state since 2019, faculty districts have additionally felt the financially crippling results of post-pandemic inflation and funds deficits. And this because the state noticed a document funds surplus of $34 million final session.
On this week’s episode of “bigcitysmalltown,” podcast host Bob Rivard talks with Mario Barrera, a San Antonio lawyer and former chairman of the Higher San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and Luis Rodriguez, president and CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, about why Texas ranks among the many worst in funding public faculties, what enterprise leaders are doing to put money into schooling and the continued battle over faculty vouchers and their affect on public faculties.
Barrera has been requested why schooling is so vital to him as a enterprise chief. And the reply is straightforward: he says there isn’t a simpler, cheaper, financial growth software for a metropolis than a well-educated and well-trained workforce.
Opting to put his personal youngster in non-public Catholic faculties as a result of his native public faculties weren’t performing effectively, Barrera mentioned he realized the significance of investing in public schooling and hopes extra eligibility necessities and metrics are positioned on households who would look to profit from any voucher or schooling financial savings account invoice the state might go.
Earlier this month, the state Senate handed a invoice that might grant households as much as $10,000 to pay for personal faculty tuition payments, tutoring, transportation and different education-related prices. The Texas Home is presently reviewing the invoice and a vote is anticipated to happen quickly.
As an lawyer, Barrera mentioned he discourages his purchasers from speculating on motive throughout witness testimonies. However relating to ESAs (instructional financial savings accounts), Barrera infers voucher applications are a scientific deconstruction of the general public faculty system in Texas.
Rodriguez questions why the state of public schooling in Texas can’t enhance, though Texas persistently ranks extremely in enterprise.
Having enrolled his personal youngsters in public faculties, Rodriguez says ZIP codes shouldn’t dictate the standard of schooling youngsters obtain. By not investing sooner or later workforce by means of elevated faculty funding, the state goes backwards, Rodriguez mentioned.
Based on the Texas Schooling Company, there are greater than 5.5 million college students enrolled in Texas Ok-12 public faculties. Complete enrollment for personal faculties in Texas is roughly 350,000.
They mentioned that native enterprise leaders are going as much as Austin on March 26 for ¡VIVA SAN ANTONIO!, an occasion placed on by the Higher San Antonio Chamber of Commerce for members to talk with state legislators and deal with points vital to San Antonio and Bexar County.
Disclosure: In his skilled capability as an lawyer, Mario Barrera has offered authorized recommendation to the San Antonio Report.
