School vouchers

[Landrover]

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB2/2025

I had to find this thread as it looks like there was some more movement on this "educational idea" this past week outta Austin. I only caught the tail end but sounds like it got past Step 1 or 2 of a 10+ step process. Choice is a VERY wonderful thing......but not with TAX payers dollars. My daughter did both and I knew what it was costing me to have her in a private environment......but it was my CHOICE to pay my taxes and pay a private school. WE bit the bullet and did not ask or demand that my neighbor chip in to our choice. Has anyone mentioned (i may have missed it) folks above 65 or so still paying for other folks kids to go to a public school? Heck, now they want our retired or close to retired folks to chip in for "private school or even home school choices" which they may or may not even be in there district/town/county/parish/zip code. It is bizarre how much Smith/Gregg County and Bowie County hit us for every year because we own unimproved rural land in those counties. Humm, sounds like a bad idea the more I consider it.

[BowhunterB]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I never heard anything about anyone one paying for anyone else's kids to go to a private school or school of their choice? I envision the process pretty basically, you get a portion of your tax dollars back to help pay for where you want your child to go.

[Traildust]

Let Texans vote on it during the next election.

Abbott needs to concentrate on eliminating property taxes. I couldn't give 2 shiats about school vouchers.

[Landrover]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I never heard anything about anyone one paying for anyone else's kids to go to a private school or school of their choice? I envision the process pretty basically, you get a portion of your tax dollars back to help pay for where you want your child to go.

(I did not realize this thread was moved to politics.....thus the reason I had not responded.....my bad!)
Ahhhhh, same thing I used to say many moons ago about school choice.
But PROPERTY TAXES pay the huge lions share of public school funding. Not sales tax which everyone pays each time they go to Walmart or Whataburger.
Property taxes are paid by folks that own property.......be it a home, a lot, a ranch, a building, a business building, a farm, etc. Owning a truck/car does not apply.

So, a family with 1 or 10 children living in an apartment or renting a home do NOT pay property taxes......but they go to the local schools. In other words, the people paying property tax are paying for those children to attend the local schools. Those local (public) schools are for everyone. Property taxes are spread among the masses locally to cover the students who do not have parents/guardians that pay into the education pot. Not GREAT honestly, but more acceptable than me agreeing to disperse those same property tax dollars to cover private schools of all types, home schooling groups, etc.

On another note concerning "getting a portion of your tax dollars back" to make a school choice. Some folks that DO PAY property taxes may only pay $1,200 per year into the pot, others may pay $12,000 or $24,000 into the same pot based on the property valuation and local tax rates..........or even ALOT more!
Based on that background, what portion does each homeowner get back to choose a school......9% or 90%? That is the rub on most folks that are looking hard into this issue. Someone paying the lower end in property taxes cannot even pay for a month at many private schools.....ask me how I know.....whew!!!. On the flip side folks paying on the higher end may already be paying for private education and also "subsidizing" the folks on the lower end and/or the folks not paying anything at all in property taxes.
What this means is we are collecting funds from PROPERTY TAX payers and giving it to others to "choose a school they prefer based on any metric" with publicly collected "property tax" dollars. That metric could be satanic worship at the wildly popular "Lucifer High School" for the dark arts!
On a brighter note, it would be a GREAT idea to open a private school as an investment if this becomes reality.
Oh, anybody know what happened to the lottery money that was going to solve ALL the school issues we could ever imagine??? Just asking for a friend!

[Landrover]

Let Texans vote on it during the next election.

Abbott needs to concentrate on eliminating property taxes. I couldn't give 2 shiats about school vouchers.

Eliminating property taxes means NO SCHOOL CHOICE vouchers since property taxes pay for schools. But, I totally agree especially for folks over a certain age. Why is a 62, 65, 70+ person paying property taxes at the same rate as someone with children enrolled in local schools? Why are they paying for other folks kids at that retirement age?
Heck, I would be willing to pay 25% of the local going rate at that age to support the local community/schools but that's just me. I also agree, I dont give to shiats about school vocher schemes, lotteries, casino's, horse tracts,etc. I have dealt with all of them living in various states during my career.....all are rackets at best. Each one has a EDUCATION component to them............NOT!!!!

[Greenheadless]

But renters do pay property taxes, just not directly.

And, taxes freeze on primary residences for elders.

[donpablo]

But renters do pay property taxes, just not directly.

And, taxes freeze on primary residences for elders.

They absolutely do. I've yet to see a business that takes a tax and fails to pass it on to the consumer. And the freezing of tax rates for the elderly brings up a good point. If they ever switched from property tax to an increased sales tax, would the elderly lose their "discount?" Would businesses still see TX as business friendly if their products became more costly due to the sales tax? It's definitely not a clear-cut solution.

[CTR0022]

So has this thing fully passed?

[Landrover]

But renters do pay property taxes, just not directly.

And, taxes freeze on primary residences for elders.

Yep, as a landlord I pass on as much as we can........but be clear it tops out pretty quick. But from another angle it is my responsibility to pay the taxes on MY properties......not that renter. If I have no renters (empty units, fire, tornado, hurricane, etc) I still pay the taxes as my name is on the documents.....not one of my renters.
Agree again, tax rate freezes at a certain age. The bigger question is WHY freeze it. Why are the elderly paying anything towards schools they have zero kids enrolled in? Heck, my neighbors 5 houses down from us get their granddaughter off the bus everyday because the school district is flush with cash. His statement to me, "I still pay all these dang taxes so I told my son & daughter in law to drop her here every morning and pick her up when yall leave work."
Going thru all those hoops because they live in a higher mortgage/rent district than his son & daughter in law currently. These senseless money grabs are part in parcel the reason elderly must downsize or even lose their primary homes. They are in their 70's and have earned the right to hold onto their money at this point.......in my opinion.

[Landrover]

So has this thing fully passed?

No sir. Been quiet lately and pretty sure it would go to a statewide vote to happen.

[joelacz]

What happens to housing values if good public schools decline because enrollment has dropped? Not sure people have thought about this. Private schools also do not require a degree in education or the passing of state tests as regulated through TEA. Anyone can teach and they pay far less than public schools. If public schools have issues getting teachers what is it like in private.

[CTR0022]

What happens to housing values if good public schools decline because enrollment has dropped? Not sure people have thought about this. Private schools also do not require a degree in education or the passing of state tests as regulated through TEA. Anyone can teach and they pay far less than public schools. If public schools have issues getting teachers what is it like in private.

The private school my kid goes to has some really good teachers, but also has had alot of turn over and some bad apples in the mix. To my understanding private school teachers on average do not make as much money as public school teachers and do not have the retirement packages that public school teachers have.

[Bear Charge]

Schools that have had increased funding for years, and are failing, need more funding?

School funding hasn't increased since 2019.

[BowhunterB]

(I did not realize this thread was moved to politics.....thus the reason I had not responded.....my bad!)
Ahhhhh, same thing I used to say many moons ago about school choice.
But PROPERTY TAXES pay the huge lions share of public school funding. Not sales tax which everyone pays each time they go to Walmart or Whataburger.
Property taxes are paid by folks that own property.......be it a home, a lot, a ranch, a building, a business building, a farm, etc. Owning a truck/car does not apply.

So, a family with 1 or 10 children living in an apartment or renting a home do NOT pay property taxes......but they go to the local schools. In other words, the people paying property tax are paying for those children to attend the local schools. Those local (public) schools are for everyone. Property taxes are spread among the masses locally to cover the students who do not have parents/guardians that pay into the education pot. Not GREAT honestly, but more acceptable than me agreeing to disperse those same property tax dollars to cover private schools of all types, home schooling groups, etc.

On another note concerning "getting a portion of your tax dollars back" to make a school choice. Some folks that DO PAY property taxes may only pay $1,200 per year into the pot, others may pay $12,000 or $24,000 into the same pot based on the property valuation and local tax rates..........or even ALOT more!
Based on that background, what portion does each homeowner get back to choose a school......9% or 90%? That is the rub on most folks that are looking hard into this issue. Someone paying the lower end in property taxes cannot even pay for a month at many private schools.....ask me how I know.....whew!!!. On the flip side folks paying on the higher end may already be paying for private education and also "subsidizing" the folks on the lower end and/or the folks not paying anything at all in property taxes.
What this means is we are collecting funds from PROPERTY TAX payers and giving it to others to "choose a school they prefer based on any metric" with publicly collected "property tax" dollars. That metric could be satanic worship at the wildly popular "Lucifer High School" for the dark arts!
On a brighter note, it would be a GREAT idea to open a private school as an investment if this becomes reality.
Oh, anybody know what happened to the lottery money that was going to solve ALL the school issues we could ever imagine??? Just asking for a friend!

Everyone pays property taxes. If you are renting a portion of your rent is to cover the property taxes the owner pays. I understand many of us are subsidizing others, but getting some of my property taxes back to be able to pay for the private school I sent my daughter to would have been nice.

[Greenheadless]

School funding hasn't increased since 2019.

That’s funny, maybe I’m the only one that has been paying progressively more in school taxes each year.