The Facts
- The number of students on wait lists for Texas charter schools has expanded substantially over the last few years, from 45,000 in 2009 to 56,000 in 2010, up to 120,000 in 2011.
- Texas has a hard cap of 215 on its open enrollment charter schools, which serves as a direct limitation for expanding school choice in Texas.
- Many states have made substantial expansions and improvements to their choice programs over the last few years.
- Texas remains reluctant to enact school choice policies of its own.
- Presently, Texas has no active voucher program or education tax credit program in place.
- Improving school choice options in Texas will not only serve to satisfy the demands of a number of Texas parents, but could result in an improvement in fiscal efficiency in the Texas public education system.
Recommendations
- Remove the hard cap of 215 open enrollment charter schools in Texas. This will allow the state to more easily address the large number of students on wait lists for charter schools in the state.
- Enact policies that allow for voucher and education scholarship programs to operate in Texas. Such policies would create more freedom for Texas students, and could save the state a substantial amount of education funding.
- Allow more aggressive options, i.e., allowing partial enrollment in Texas public schools, which would create tremendous flexibility for parents seeking the maximum amount of choice in regards to their child’s education, allowing them to participate in a potential mix of traditional public, online, and even home-school based learning resources.
- Create an environment that allows Texas public schools to operate with minimal top down interference from the state.
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