I support teachers being empowered 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 parents being empowered to choose what is best for their kids. That is hard to do when they have no choice.
That is why I think parents instead of politicians should hold schools accountable for teaching their kids, which removes politically motivated testing mandates and frees teachers to use their skills.
Texas passed a voucher plan that over 274,00 students applied for and 90,000 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 vouchers 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 there are kids that 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.