I support empowering teachers to use their talents to motivate learning. That is hard to do when they are mandated to teach to standardized tests and conform to regimented regimes.
I support empowering parents to choose what is best for their kids. That is hard to do when they have no choice.
That is why I think parents, rather than politicians, should hold schools accountable for teaching their kids, thereby removing politically motivated testing mandates and freeing teachers to use their skills.
Texas passed an education savings account plan called the Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA) program, for which over 274,000 students applied and fewer than 100,000 were accepted. We should not turn away so many students, as in the documentary “Waiting for Superman”. I recognize it was a heavy lift to get school choice and politicians want time to study the results before making changes.
Ideally, I would like a statewide scholarship. Every child would be given the same amount of money to follow them to any school. This would resolve the Robin Hood (Chapter 41) disputes and remove politically motivated testing mandates.
Lastly, it must be recognized that there are kids who have terrible challenges as documented in the Frontline documentary “Dropout Nation” of Sharpstown High School in Houston. Some problems go much deeper than education policy.