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A former public school teacher, who now home-schools most of her children, gave her take on education savings accounts (ESAs) and how they would "level the playing field" for everyone.
Cassandra Posey, who lives in a rural area of Texas, once taught and wrote curriculum at the Tomball Independent School District, which she described as one of the best school districts in the state.
"One of the things I learned being an educator is that all students learn differently," Posey said, "and diversifying teaching and giving students different options would be advantageous."
"If a student learns best through writing or by expressing their learning in art, then they should be allowed to do that all year long if that works for them," she said, adding that ESAs would give parents the option to "match them with the school that might be able to tailor to their learning better."
ESAs for families would universally "free families of all different types and backgrounds and live with different lifestyles, disabilities, income and levels the playing field for everyone so that they they can take advantage of that."
According to Edchoice.org, ESAs are a type of school choice program that provide families with a personal account for educational expenses, such as tuition, tutoring, textbooks and online courses. These accounts are funded by the state, and families can use them to pay for a variety of educational services, including private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other educational options.
ESAs give families more control over their children's education, and they provide a way for parents to customize their child's learning experience. Families can use the funds to purchase educational services from a range of providers, allowing them to choose the services that best meet their child's needs.
Posey left her teaching role when she` received an active threat from a student, and while the student was removed from school, the administration allowed him to come back and continue his harassment of her.
She also said school administrators do not always address parents' concerns.
"And so that has that has been really difficult as a parents, because any time we say that there's a problem, administration comes back and says, well, we don't feel like there's a problem. We don't feel like that's an issue. And so regardless of what the parents feel, what the parents think about their child in that classroom and the atmosphere or the learning or the teacher or the curriculum--if the administrators don't feel that way, then it just falls on deaf ears," Posey said.
According to the Austin Journal, Gov. Greg Abbott supports passing a bill that would include an ESA program in Texas. At a rally in Corpus Christi, Abbott said ESAs would be beneficial for "every child in the state of Texas.
Posey agreed that ESAs would benefit all children in Texas.
"We can look at our reading scores and our math scores and how low those are and how how is that benefiting students? How is putting that money into the public school benefiting students? They're not seeing a return on their investment," Posey said, adding that ESAs are "a different way for families to invest in their students."
According to the Heritage Foundation, public support for education choice policies like ESAs is at all-time high. In a recent poll, 70% of Texans and 77% of parents of school-aged children support ESAs, the Heritage Foundation said, citing the Pew Research Center.
Posey outlined many issues she encountered and helped in the fight against the school district where her children were enrolled. One required reading books, in which the content was inappropriate, another was seminars with sexual content, all of which parents did not have access to. Parents, she said, actually had to fight and petition the school district to see the content, and their taxpayer dollars were spent on lawyers fighting the parents' right to access. After finally taking the issue to the attorney general, they were presented with pages that were blacked out.
Posey believes that ESAs will also help the public schools.
"I think it's an incentive for them to change their course, their current behavior," she said. "If they want the additional income and money, then they'll say... hey, we've had X percent of students leave because of this...because of whatever the reason. Maybe we need to look at ourselves. Maybe it's us. Maybe it is our problem. Instead of always putting it off on somebody else."
In speaking to both teachers and parents, Posey said many are "absolutely" in favor of ESAs.
In addition, "there are parents of low income earners that really need to stay because they don't they don't have an option. They are stuck in the system."
"Then you have students who are maybe high achieving, but they are they are capped at their learning capacity because teachers cannot go above and beyond whatever the average of the classroom is. They can offer them those enrichment services. They can't help nurture or foster that that growth for them," Posey said.
"There are so many teachers who are in favor of this," she said, adding that a poll in Texas found 50 percent are in favor of it.
According to Posey, rural and urban areas need school choice.
"I believe that in rural areas school choice is needed as much, if not maybe more than urban areas, because we don't have a lot of options available to us. In most rural areas, the only option is public school. But if ESAs were more available, the market would produce private schools, micro schools, co-ops...Wherever there is a need and that funding is available, the market will provide it. And so for rural communities, I think it's imperative, honestly," Posey said.