EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A new school voucher program passed by Texas lawmakers, Senate Bill Two, is drawing significant criticism from El Paso residents.
The bill allocates up to one billion dollars of public funds for families to use on private schooling, a move that many locals believe will harm public education.
Guillermo Ramos expressed concern, saying, “Well I don’t see it fair, I think they’re taking it away from the people who need it the most.” He added, “I think that we’re struggling because I know that they’re trying to shut down some schools and let go some teachers, and hey, we need all the help that we can get into the public system.”
Andrew Preciadl echoed these sentiments, stating, “The public school system’s already in a crisis, defunding them is just going to create a worse situation for everyone.” He warned, “The voucher system is going to be really detrimental to defunding public schools,” which he believes will have “a horrible impact on low-income families like the one I came from myself.”
Rosa Grazia advocated for investing in public schools, saying, “Yeah, spend it on the public school so the majority of the people going to public school can take advantage of it.”
Ross Moore, president of the El Paso chapter of the Texas AFT, was adamant that the voucher program would harm public schools. “It was and it will be a very bad thing for public schools and public school students,” he said. Moore further explained, “They’re not going to be able to afford. What it is going to do is it’s going to draw money out of the public schools away from the schools and I see it destabilizing their budgets even further.”
Efforts to reach the three largest school districts in the area for comment were unsuccessful.
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