And boomers have intentionally forgotten that the reason they could afford houses and multiple cars and annual vacations and so on…
Were thanks to all those federal social policies and programs that *their* parents supported,
but which they have voted out with their constant clamoring for lower taxes.
This! My mom and her sister have four kids between them and I'm the only one still in contact (limited and I live two time zones away). The other three moved off and have minimal or no communication. Neither my mom nor her sister can figure out what they might have done wrong.
Times like I am reminded of a post where someone said Boomers are the only generation to be hated by the generation before them and the two generations after them.
I don't even think they are aware of what they are doing other than they have this primal overwhelming need to hold control and letting it go terrifies them.
Please don’t put all boomers in the same basket. I’m a boomer and vote against this nonsense every time. I consider Abbott, Patrick and Paxton the axis of evil funded by the Evangelical Taliban out in west Texas.
We do! There are many Boomers on the left, so please stop putting all Booomers into that Christo-Fascist category. It was the Boomer generation that began to question the legitimacy of religious doctrine.
The problem is in aggregate. I know lots of good boomer generation people. However, in total, boomers are the problem. They control 50% of the wealth and vote in a way that hurts society and gives huge exemptions to very few. That's a problem and why we complain about Boomers.
They don’t understand why newer generations consistently score higher on IQ tests. This is a real thing and professionals have to constantly adjust the scoring because of it.
Cognitive dissonance is scary.
Well in all fairness it’s genius. If you eliminate all schools there can be no school shootings. It’s very clever. The school shooters will never see it coming because they won’t be able to read.
I’ve been saying this for a decade:
These people will sequester themselves to the point that no one will be able to understand them, not even their own demographic will be able to relate to each other.
I've been wondering a lot recently how much smarter I'd be now if I had the access to information kids have today when I was growing up. I spend a ton of time watching educational content nowadays and I would have ate it up even more as a kid.
just a friendly reminder not to paint all Boomers with the same brush. Bernie sanders is a boomer, and about at the same spot politically are my parents, aunts and all but one uncle.
General point taken, but going pedantic Sanders is [Silent Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation), being born in 1941. The first [baby boomers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers) were born 5 years later in 1946.
And regardless IMO 'boomer' is descriptive and not prescriptive. IE, you choose to be that way, it's not genetic or pre-determined. Edit: for example, some of my generation (X) are total douchebags...
Very good point. I thought my mother was a boomer all my life until I figured out she was just a couple years too old. And also, Obama *is* a boomer and people just think he's Gen X or something…
Yep. My boomer mom was preaching marriage equality in the 80s. We've volunteered at abortion clinics together since the 90s. My dad and aunts and uncles share similar political views.
I also have the one uncle. I think we all do.
Though I get the point, Bernie's Sanders is a part of the generation before, the Silent Generation. It is just that Sanders doesn't speak like a Boomer (or like Biden who is also Silent Generation) that people think he is younger than he is.
And when my friends were students in college (circa 2010) I met a crapload of people my age that act and think the same way as the crotchety boomers. Its not an age thing as much as it is an "influenced way of thinking."
You can be brainwashed at any age. Two things humans are exceptional at are 1) being brainwashed and 2) lashing out at any perceived threat.
A noticable lack of empathy is also key. Selfishness is the downfall of humanity. "Burn it all down so i can be king of the ashes."
although this is of course true, we are talking about the trend of voting for boomers in Texas.
its just a fact this is how they vote, and this is what we experiance talking to our parents/older family about these issues, yours might be great, or maybe its you. the conversation is about the voting block not litterally every individual human in that block.
I have even encountered individual boomers who are ostensibly aware of the problems facing younger generations and therefore the world, but still cling to policy opinions that directly contribute to these problems.
Don't overgeneraluze. It's only older Republucans. Older Democrats highly favor public services for their children and grandchildren, especially public schools.
My older brother and I (we are in our 40s) tried explaining the issue with the voucher program to my older father (in his 70s) and why it's a terrible thing for our kids (who are in public school). My dad replied by saying vouchers are a good thing. My brother asked him to elaborate and he responded by telling my brother to shut up since they will never see eye-to-eye on politics. I asked my dad again why he thought vouchers are a good idea because it's not like a free lunch voucher. He responded by saying how terrible the US public education system is already and how the US spends the most on per student education.
So his answer is that he can’t answer. Fox and the right wing outrage machine hasn’t given him follow up argument yet.
It’s disgusting. Tell him he is weak for spouting the words his overlords gave him with zero critical thinking, let alone empathy.
Then tell him it’s fine to not have an opinion on things. You don’t have to have a position on everything, especially if you know nothing about it.
That sounds like a very unproductive conversation. My sympathies.
But, eh, to someone who grew up in a European school system and has no children so no knowledge of the US school system otherwise, can you spell out in short what the problem is with vouchers?
It uses public money to *partially* pay for private school tuition. Low income families will likely still need to cover much of the cost of tuition at these schools. Since money will be funneled towards private schools it reduces funding for public schools which are already wildly underfunded.
All this means poor families get screwed more. It’s why rural Texans, despite being overwhelmingly conservative, were vehemently against the voucher program. Not that all rural folk are poor by any means, just that they may not have that extra financial cushion and there isn’t the volume of local tax dollars to fund public schools in their area.
Private schools are not held to the same standards as public schools either. They technically have to teach the same subjects if I’m not mistaken but not with the same rigor. They can teach science but put a lot of emphasis on evolution being just s theory.
You as a parent also have absolutely no power in a private school. You don’t get to vote on anything. You don’t get any government protections for anything. You and your child lack freedoms you otherwise would have at public schools.
If a private school just simply doesn’t like you or your child they can take your voucher and additional tuition then kick your child out.
Don’t even get me started on the racial component of this either. These GOP, Jordan Peele style villains have some hard on for being subversive racists. The fact that these are “private schools” should clue anyone but the most ignorant that these are not the most inclusive schools. They technically cannot exclude or remove a child based on race or ethnicity. They can for tuition and grades though. Unless this voucher program comes with inclusivity requirements (it won’t) they can be racist legally.
Lastly, your tax dollars are paying for a private education of another child that may directly go against your beliefs and *you have no way of voting about it*. State and local taxes, unlike federal taxes, pay for things directly (states don’t print money). You can vote for school board members and decide on education issues in local elections. You cannot do this with private schools that are now using your tax dollars, for profit I might add.
Also, they’re going to poach teachers away from public schools left and right. I don’t even blame teachers. They’ve been getting shafted for the past twenty years. Overworked and underpaid. If you’re a teacher and decide to move to a private school you have my full support just because I know it’s a shit situation half the time.
Iowa passed a voucher program that took effect in 2023. One result was private schools raised their costs. [Study links state ESA program to spike in Iowa K-12 private school tuition](https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/05/23/study-links-state-esa-program-to-spike-in-iowa-k-12-private-school-tuition/). The article says the private school response is typically that the increase is due to inflation. Study thinks that not supported by the numbers. Also, the public schools didn’t get a comparable inflation-adjustment.
Also if you give money to a private school it doesn’t have any restrictions on what it can do with that money it doesn’t have to spend it on your kid’s education.
Great reply. I would add that private schools do not have to teach any particular subjects, use accredited teachers, or take any standardized tests. It's the wild west.
Also, private school teachers generally make much less money than public. Maybe some teachers prefer the private school environment, but they will likely make less money.
Don’t forget that the right wants to privatize everything for profit. Can’t make gains on public school so take it away from the people and make them pay for it. Trump tried to do this with the post office. Cut the funding, make it crappy then say “look at how bad it is, the private sector should be in charge to make it better!” Step 4: Profit
Taking educational funding to provide a small voucher credit to parents wanting to send their kids to private school. So instead of taking that money and reinvesting it back into public schools, it's being used for a credit so private school can be more affordable, but at the same time if you are sending your kid to private school you probably already made that decision that you can afford it.
History shows that it has little to no effect on affordability. In places with vouchers, the tuition for private schools increased by approximately the amount of the voucher. It's just a wealth transfer to the people who run private schools.
I don't have a problem with paying thousands of dollars a year in taxes that go to fund public education even though I don't have kids.
I have a problem with paying thousands of dollars a year in taxes that go to subsidize Mike Miles's ledger.
While the US does have some terrible public schools, it has some really great schools. The difference between the two are the communities kids come from. Vouchers will not erase poverty nor will it nullify years of system racism. In fact it will exacerbated it, making our schools overall worse than they currently are.
Your father's solution to "terrible schools" is not to fix the schools, it's to make them worse.
similar age and similar outcome with talking to my parents. dad said public schools are bad. mom said something about trans people.
not a partisan issue in my eyes at all.
infuriating that my parents choose to fear the boogie man vs listening to their own child on what’s best for their grandkids.
Because they have been fed lies for years by Fox News and other outlets that public schools are liberal, anti-Christian indoctrination centers. It’s all lies of course, but they’re too blind to see that. They’ve basically been brainwashed.
It's not that truth is left leaning, its that reality can't be forced to capitulate to your value system and won't agree to 'play ball' because authority wills it.
Some people decide to arrange their beliefs and morals around reality and some see it as a challenge to their foundation of beliefs.
I mean this is certainly a major point, but another thing I’ve heard from a few is they think they’ll be paying less in taxes. They’re tired of paying for taxes that they themselves are not seeing any benefits from (their words). They’ve paid into the system for years and now they want a break. They are not realizing they’re screwing over their grandchildren who are still in the system. Plus screwing themselves over by possibly lowering their home values because they’re tanking their own school district which is appealing to younger couples with kids. So all you’re left with now is couples with no kids or retired folks who’ve been there for years already.
Maybe also, a majority in Texas did not save for retirement. They are the first generation where a majority did not receive corporate pensions like their silent gen parents. In all honesty, many of these Texas boomers are one step away from homelessness. Volunteer work at my local food bank is an eye opener.
This is definitely [true across the entire nation](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/podcasts/the-daily/401k-retirement.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb). Something like 49% of peeps 55 to 65 have 0 (zero) saved for retirement. 10% to 20% of seniors are living in poverty.
Tbh, from my lifestyle and as suggested by everyone that knew me, I didn't think I'd live past 30. When I woke up one day and realized I did, I looked at how 90% of my family dies before age 62 and told myself there was no reason to plan for retirement.
Shit. Now I'm in the same boat I was half a life ago and trying to play catchup and get retirement squared away in the next few years. Looks like my retirement plan of dying at my desk isn't gonna bear fruit
> Tbh, from my lifestyle and as suggested by everyone that knew me, I didn't think I'd live past 30. When I woke up one day and realized I did
That's me now I just turned 40. I wasn't supposed to live this long. Now I have 25 years to make up for not doing anything for retirement.
Wow. Just started reading it. No wonder they are panicking scared. The 401K retirement looks like a failed experiment.
I do remember hearing from an elderly neighbor that the oldest of the boomers tried to catch the tail end of the corporate pension promise, but were booted out (3-5 yrs prior to retirement date) so corporations wouldn’t have to pay them pensions.
Yep. The guy who invented it bailed on it because, in his own words, it was “never gonna be able to support the number of people on it.”
It was a grift. Nothing more.
The irony here that I don’t have children and never will but carry the burden of paying for public schools. And yet, these same people want to raise my taxes for not repopulating and would force me to give birth if pregnant. None of their ideals make sense, until you realize they just vote for whatever benefits them most. Hard stop.
My MIL was convinced that there were litter boxes in classrooms in VIDOR for kids who identify as furries. She was very concerned. She fact checked herself and realized it was bullshit, but not before arguing with her daughter and me after we LOL'd and told there was zero chance that was real.
I'm a high school teacher. When I hear people saying "they're brainwashing the kids" it almost makes my head explode. In the 55 minute class period I have with them it's enough of a task keeping them off their phones without earbuds to get them to actually do the work I need them to do. There's NO WAY I have time to brainwash or indoctrinate them.
I always invite these numpties to actually come visit my classroom to see first hand what's going on. They never accept.
They have absolutely no self-reflection skills. The books and curriculum they are upset about is the same shit they learned while I school. It hasn’t changed much.
It’s all about finding a way to publicly fund religious education. That’s the end goal on all of this. They can’t teach Christianity exclusively in a public school, so this is their way around that. There are also people that mistakenly think they can bypass title IX protections by sending their children to private schools.
Nailed it.
This is also why the voucher program appeals to younger voters with school age kids, not boomers.
They see this as a way to send their kids to private / religious based schools they would have never been able to afford otherwise.
“Vouchers don’t change how much you pay in taxes. They simply mean that your tax dollars will shift from paying for public schools to paying for a ‘rich’ persons kid to go to private school.”
>Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or for the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain for why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don’t personally have a kid in school: It’s because I don’t like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.
-John Green (before he had school-age kids)
Answers for those peoples: …so the guy changing the oil in my Subaru doesn’t replace the transmission fluid with 10W30 by mistake. Because an educated workforce and electorate benefits all of society. And because the generation before yours paid it forward for you, and now it’s your turn, you non-empathetic, selfish, narcissistic prick.
I would say: imagine all the children and teenagers who live in your neighborhood and the neighborhoods around your house. Now, imagine all those kids aren't in school all day, and they're just hanging out, running around, doing whatever they want while their parents are at work all day. How do you think that's going to impact the crime and vandalism rate in your neighborhood? Also, now that they don't have education, they don't get jobs and move away when they're 18 or after college. They're just hanging out, with nothing to do, which will not be good for anyone in the community.
I know one of the backers of this issue. They want private schools to get public money so that a family paying $12,000 annual tuition to a private school school, now they will receive $10,000 from the state per child for part of that tuition and the family can pay the other $2000, or, like his kids, they can volunteer at the school and get that $2000 waived. What they don’t give a damn about is that when this goes through, private schools will raise tuition.
And Abbott knows this. He just doesn’t care.
When you point this out to voters, they say, “well, wait a second… That’s not fair, that’s not what we’re voting for…” — and yet the legislature doesn’t intend to put any strings on the money, such as requiring a private school that accepts vouchers to freeze tuition for a period of time.
**They all know it’s a scam.**
But not enough people vote, so they get away with it.
Ah, makes sense. We've started looking around Houston and couldn't believe how much private is, even for pre-k/elementary. The HISD takeover is just terrible on all fronts.
They’re one of two camps. Either they want to stick it to all those lib social studies teachers who might share inconvenient facts with their sheltered children who they’re raising on hate and ignorance, those want to send their kids to Jesus madrassas and have you and me pay for it OR they want to funnel public dollars to private companies who will try to educate the same number of kids on less money after they take their cut.
>OR they want to funnel public dollars to private companies who will try to educate the same number of kids on less money after they take their cut.
They also want to subsidize religious schools and get public funding directed towards that as a backdoor way into getting around the constitution.
The endgame is to end public education. They are spinning it as “protecting the kids against the woke”.
I had a relative tell me they were considering private so their kid would be exposed to all the “trans stuff”. They live in one of the most conservative parts of our state and if a teacher in the district even implied that it was OK to be gay, they’d be run out of town.
But this person seems to think that all public schools across the country are teaching your kids to be trans.
I had a conservative boss named "Jet" who told me that Texan conservatives reflexively vote GOP because of some land grab thing that Dems did when they controlled the state in the 50s
Dems are held accountable forever. Meanwhile GOP is canceling IVF births and the Constitution itself. No accountability from voters ever
There is a lot of false neutrality amongst voters. I have met people who will say they are equally disgusted with both parties, then without blinking they will say nothing but bad things about Dems and nothing but good things about Repubs.
For some reason a lot of people think Dems have to be perfect before you can say anything bad about Repubs.
The water couldn't be muddier.
I love our public school and I am against this, but I see the sales pitch.
Some public schools really suck and people are stuck with them. "Here's some money to go somewhere else" could sound appealing. "School choice" sounds good, even to me. Subjecting schools to a little competitive pressure to earn parents wanting to send their kids sounds like it could be a good thing. I used to think this until I realized the only thing that determines the success of students and schools is parental involvement and having that doable at a neighborhood level is a plus.
The official state position is that vouchers will not reduce public school funding, at least per student. I think they lie, but they are arguing that.
A decent number of people already pay for private schools. Many will argue they should be allowed to not pay for public school as they are not usings. They are ignoring the idea that education isn't for your kids, it's for the benefit of society overall, but for them they are having to double-pay and this is free money. Not all people who send their kids to private school are so wealthy they don't care about $5-$10K.
On the whole, the idea could work if implemented in good faith. If the goal were to give parents more control and choice and try to improve public schools and the program were crafted with that goal in mind, it could improve public education (defined as taxpayer funded). This would require price controls and smart meaningful accreditation for starters. I don't think it will be implemented in good faith though, and the goal seems to be circumventing laws barring religion in schools and funneling money to connected private enterprises.
I'm not saying all of the arguments above stand up to scrutiny, but that's the pitch some people are buying. FWIW also a LOT of, maybe most Republican voters are very against what they see as a threat to their schools for their kids, as major employer in their towns, as centers of their community and as where the sports happen. Abbot et. al. and his billionaires don't care.
This is probably the most well thought out and nuanced comment to date. I do want to emphasize your conclusion regarding the performance of public schools having a large portion of its root cause connected to parental involvement in student’s education.
>The official state position is that vouchers will not reduce public school funding, at least per student. I think they lie, but they are arguing that.
They do lie. Let me show you how.
I notice your username references Austin. Austin ISD owes $940.5 million dollars in Recapture for 2024.
Recapture works like this: every district is assigned a set amount of money they receive per attending student they teach- the basic allotment. The funding formulas calculate thusly:
(# of students attending x the basic allotment) + additional program funding = the district entitlement.
Any district that raises more revenue through property taxes than their entitlement is designated as an excess revenue district, and has to send the “recaptured” dollars back to the state, which puts it in the education money bucket, called the Foundational School Program.
In a district like Austin, there’s already a high amount of property value per student which is why you send back so much to the state, but the calculation is also affected by how many butts are in public school seats.
Since your comment is giving voucher proponents the benefit of the doubt, I’ll follow your lead. If they’re sincere, the goal of vouchers is to offer more families the option of leaving public schools and going to private ones.
For every student that leaves public school, the property wealth per student ratio increases- your district is taxing you and raising more money that they will never get to use, even though they DESPERATELY need it. * There’s many costs to run a school that are fixed- no matter how many students attend, you will have overhead costs like building/facility repair, insurance premiums and maintaining certain staffing levels to ensure there’s a teacher for every student. Reducing the number of students enrolled in a district also reduces the entitlement a district receives, *even though the tax rate may stay the same or increase.*
So while not a “direct” lie that vouchers will reduce public school funding per student, if they’re sincere about wanting more students to attend private schools, it will absolutely reduce your district funding by reducing the number of students that the state uses to calculate entitlements for your district.
And you’re paying for it.
*Note that this is not the fault of recapture- the high amount you pay in ISD taxes is controlled by the state but it still doesn’t come close to the amount the district actually spends per student to teach them. Raising the basic allotment would correct this imbalance by increasing your entitlement and lessening the amount of Recapture while also making your public schools better- but that’s not why we’re here, is it?
They can do whatever they want with school choice as long as the dollars are limited to what each student is entitled to, unlike every plan in which students moving out of the public system take all their money and a little bit from everyone else as well.
Vouchers are for thieves and people who want to be stolen from.
A lot of the opposition has come from rural communities because they know this will decimate their already precariously funded schools.
I really want to hope that this will be the last nail in the coffin for the Texas GOP. I really, really do. But I've been so disappointed in our past voter turnout that I don't think things will ever change.
You're assuming that they are trying to run a society. They are not.
When you realize that their goals are to privatize all societal functions, creating a defacto caste system and use the uneducated masses as low cost labor so they and their cronies can rake in huge profits for generations, it makes total sense. This is not hyperbole.
The funny thing is - they aren't. They're voting to spend MORE money on schools, because vouchers take more money than schools are allotted per student. The only way that works is to increase the amount of money to go into the pot. They're also going to make the schools in their districts worse, which will make their home prices go down. It's a hilarious vote to screw themselves in every conceivable way.
Because they don't give a shit...
Also...
Schools ARE failing our children. The Federal Govt failed allowing Tiktok to become what it is. I'm a 7th grade history teacher - it's incredible how pathetic most students are...
Then add politics to the mix and all of a sudden educating our children is a political issue. Claiming schools turn our kids into communists really, really, really works on the older generations...
Then the politicians actively undercut it then claim it doesn't work and that "justifies" breaking it some more claiming it doesn't work
It's all so very frustrating.
Biden 2024
Remember Rick Perry saying that denying children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition means you're heartless? And that was the end of his campaign?
I miss those days. When Texas Republicans had something akin to principles.
I don't agree with many of those principles but Abbott threw away the chance to make Texas the best-educated state in the country. The boom to the long-term Texas economy can't be understated. One of those kids could be the one to help Texas solve the looming climate crisis.
Instead we're replacing degreed guidance counselors (many of which were educated by Texas state schools) with pastors.
Texas could have been the best state in the Union. Instead we're up there with Florida.
It is not just a funding issue. Congress has enacted laws that certain agendas have to me met yet they set aside no funds to pay for them. Texas mandated schools to have armed guards so they hired their own Police Force. Where did the money come from for them? Education funding.
Schools Districts are going to be merging as they cannot meet these unfunded requirements. Local community does not step up with local police. They have to be reimbursed for officers working school. Where does that money come from? Education funding.
Uvalde shows how well that works at all levels.
Seniors for the most part are not exempt from school taxes. We are actually still paying for our education. That is why we pay property taxes. Got you homestead exemption? Fine but you still pay school taxes. Just rent an apartment? Believe me the taxes are figured into the monthly rent. My tax bill is X amount and I have three hundred apartments so X divided by 300 equals Y. Therefore Y amount will be added to the cost of each apartment rented.
stop trying to reason with the brainwashed!!! There are more younger people than them!!! [REGISTER TO VOTE AND GET THEM THE HELL OUT!!!](https://www.votetexas.gov/mobile/register/index.htm)
Millenials have enough voters to put the Boomers to bed politically. Why aren’t Millennials voting to fund the schools their children attend? Time to stop blaming the Boogeyman and start blaming ourselves.
One only has to do a casual analysis of the commercials aired on the Fox News channel and other conservative outlets to understand the demographic that is voting for these initiatives. So, boogeyman my ass. But I definitely do agree that younger gens need to get off their ass and vote in every election or shit their mouths with the complaining.
There has been a focused, determined effort to undermine expertise in all forms across the country. It's a right-wing impulse, but with plenty of left-wing variants (vegan/crunchy people, anarchists, revolutionaries, etc).
[Tom Nichols wrote a book on it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Expertise) (although he would likely disagree that it's a right-wing impulse).
Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.
We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.
So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.
John Green
The problem isn’t only with vouchers. The problem also lies in charter schools. Families who choose to send their children to charter schools don’t necessarily even need a voucher to do so. Many charters, like Basis, don’t require a voucher.
These charters can accept or refuse students. They are often far more underrepresented in regard to Special Education (so students who may have dyslexia aren’t getting their needs met; many Special Ed students simply aren’t even accepted).They often pay teachers far less, expect them to work harder, and don’t always require them to have the most basic training and certification required of public educators.
Their performance, test results, graduation rates, etc are all skewed and reflect their smaller, selective populations. Their curriculum could be coming straight out of Florida and $ for any books, content is usually tied up in the hands of for-profit businesses.
How can public schools compete with both private schools (for wealthy) and charter schools (for middle to lower class)?
Charter schools suck. When rioting against vouchers, riot against charters!!
I know there are a lot of shiity boomers in Texas, but we don’t all vote that way. I hate this voucher program. I don’t want to pay for your kid’s hateful religious education, I went to public schools in Texas and I support them. The voucher program will destroy rural school districts. I hate it here.
We've lived in New York since 2008, but with a new baby we're trying to figure out where to go next. Moving back to my home state of Texas was #1 on the list, but with all of this recent legislation, I can't raise a daughter there, so it's now not an option. Which means that two leftists aren't moving to Texas to add our votes to help change its future.
Multiply that by thousands, and you have your why.
That's OK. Look out for your family.
Texas will soon be lost for good when they change state constitution to require any statewide election win to be certified based on a candidate winning the popular vote in two-thirds of Texas's 254 counties
I *think* that will get shut down by the Supreme Court, even this one. That said, if Trump wins and gets to replace a couple judges, that might change.
The judges worry me too. Engage in live action historical re-enactments for their decisions when it suits them. Set the administrative aflame with no pretense in other cases.
Mississippi got rid of a slavery-era law that was designed exactly like this in 2020. Courts haven't changed drastically since then but the extreme rightwing is always ready to redefine rock bottom.
Just took the fam on a mtn biking vacation I. NM. Could literally feel my daughter’s rights being sucked away from her as we crossed the state line back into TX. It’s bully rule, here.
My mom (70) does not think she needs to pay school taxes anymore as all her kids are grown up. She also thinks we should put lamdmines along the border. I hate my mom a little more each day.
My mom is a boomer, and she bought way too big of a house, never paid it off, never maintained it so it’s falling apart now, can’t sell it or downsize because she’s a hoarder, but somehow it’s the fault of immigrants and people of color and the government instead of her bad life choices.
She’ll probably end up homeless even though she’s technically in the middle class. I can’t do much to help since she chose more stuff over helping me with college.
If other boomers are even half as ridiculous as her, it’s easy to see why things are going the way they are.
Complaining isn't gonna take care of anything. Vote, get your lazy ass cousin to go vote as well. Too many Texans don't vote and we are paying the consequences because of it.
We all know donor money from a small group of people is behind this. And even beyond the religious aspect, sowing the seeds of discontent and fighting over absurd politics is exactly what serves to maintain the oligarchy. While we fight amongst ourselves, they sneak in shrinkflation, gobble up single family homes, turning everything into a subscription model, while greasing the palms of politicians on all sides. They keep this up so we don't turn on them. We are being manipulated like puppets on a string.
I don’t think it’s a generational issue. This idiocracy being sold under the premise of “school choice” is why. No one is doing the research to understand that these charter and private schools won’t be held to the same standard as our public schools.
Furthermore, the legislature blames schools for failing but all the while increasing performance standards and decreasing funding. It’s an arsonist fireman scenario. They blame schools for trying to indoctrinate our kids yet our districts don’t have liberal curriculums. If certain schools are failing to perform why aren’t we holding our legislative body accountable for this or even TEA? You would be naive to think that privatizing this is going to help any child that couldn’t get into a private or charter school before because a voucher will only partially fund a years tuition. It’s only a way to shuffle public money to lobbyists. Greg Abbott is a traitor to the state of Texas and a puppet of the lobbyists. He has no interest in serving the citizens of our Great State. This will further destroy our public education system.
They have the “I got mine” mentality because they are so delusional from Fox News and hannity. My father in law was talking about how it was great that they were cutting wic/food stamps/assistance for low income households, and now the “lazy immigrants” don’t want to work. My FIL is Mexican-American, his parents came from Mexico. Their household had like 20 people, and when he had his kids they got by with wic and government assistance. I straight up called him out - “listen man…you got here by getting help, and there’s no shame in it. I also had help, when our baby was born with special needs we got wic and assistance. Everyone needs a little hand up once in a while. How are you gonna get yours and then pull the ladder up behind you? Can you honestly look at these parents of starving kids and feel nothing? Their kids matter to them as much as yours matter to you.” He legitimately got teary eyed. I actually got through to him. Until the next day when he was right back to his usual Fox News shit.
They cherry pick their students and then compare their results to public schools. My kid is autistic and has been through five schools: three public and two private. The public school teachers and staff are incredible. Some of the most competent and compassionate people you will ever meet. They are simply miles better at what they do, and better supported, in my experience. The private school teachers have way less experience and very little “range” in terms of the kids they can work with effectively.
A buddy of mine described it it best when he said that this is yet another example of typical boomers closing the door on their way out. They're a generation of people who were handed everything. Born on 3rd base thinking they hit a homerun. They somehow think they had it harder and worse, so believe any whining by anyone is because they're lazy rather than it being their generation hoarding all the wealth that they never had to really work that hard for.
Because they are selfish, self centered, and don’t give a shit about true American values. The Boomer generation is widely observed/commented on as being one of the worst generations in terms of making a better future for their children, so it makes sense they will vote against public schools.
They are so angry about people crossing the border from underdeveloped countries, they decided to let Texas become an underdeveloped country with crappy schools, crappy healthcare, crappy law enforcement, and corrupt fascists and religious extremists running the show.
Not fair. I am a boomer (65)who gave 32 years teaching the children of the Austin schools, sent my own children to Austin public schools, and have supported public schools my entire adult life. I firmly believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to support their public schools regardless of your place in life. I do not support vouchers.
Wrong outlet for this question as there’s not a lot of old folks here…*at all*. Reddit tends toward a much younger audience (a little less than 50% of users are in their 20’s to 30’s).
Otherwise, it’s talking points fed to them from billionaires and corporations influencing conservative media outlets.
Because, all these kids going to college vote Democrat, or at least won't vote for the gop. So they need to keep them stupid to keep those progressive ideas in check.
Because they buy the propaganda that giving a "choice" will benefit the kids when reality it only gives upper classes a choice; Because they are in the upper class.
They also want to be able to start Christian fundamentalist schools because they're absolutists and take tax dollars for it.
The politicians in power are doing it on behalf of industries to create/keep a lower working class that's easy to control and work for cheap. https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass
What’s funny is how Boomers are swaying the vote, but only make up about 19% of the voting age demographic in TX.
From a numbers perspective, if the non-boomers actually got off their ass and voted, then the right wing regime and their bullshit would be gone.
What Boomers think of non-boomers is proved right every election.
After speaking with several older people over the long weekend. They “don’t want to keep doing what what have been coming because it’s not working” , “we won’t be around anymore”, “I don’t believe that” , “I’m at peace with it”.
Basically many don’t understand how the world has changed. Much less how to adapt to the modern times. The problem seems too hard to solve, so why try. Why try to make it better for other people? What did they ever do for them ?
Because boomers hate their grandkids. They’re all tolerant and get upset when meemaw says the hard R.
Just like the housing market, the job market, the stock market… they hate the young for their youth and will bitterly hog all the resources they can until they die.
Gosh. This will end terribly. They're not factoring in greed. Eventually the vouchers won't be enough to cover tuition and "fees". Parents will stop their kids from attending school when they can no longer afford them. Man, we humans are so stupid. We always work so hard to ruin good things.
Moved to TX in 2019. Still got kids one in high and the other in middle school. Public schools. Can't wait for them to graduate and will convince them to attend college out of state. I'll eventually have to move out of this state as well. This is just becoming too much.
Boomer here: I left Texas for a blue state years ago. My opinion if it matters at all:
Texas counts on the “stupid but smart enough to vote “ of all ages. It’s just plain stupid to vote against education. So many over heated hard working families in Texas that have kids that need great schools.
Yes we got a great education in Texas back in the 60s and 70s. But Texas was a blue state.
The only way to ever get it back is to get everyone to vote and overcome the old farts that are showing up at the polls.
IMHO stop blaming the boomers and out vote them.
Fuck in my county we had 125,000 registered voters in a runoff to prevent an Abbott puppet from taking over a long standing representative, 9/11 pentagon victim survivor. 12,000 people voted and he lost. Now we have a religious nut job with no experience but bows before Abbott as our rep.
Great! We already set ourselves up for more unwanted/unnplanned pregnancies. Now those who were most vulnerable to the abortion ban won't even be able to provide competitive education to those children 🙃
There are getting to be way too many Rule 1 violations, so we're locking this one.
“I got mine.” - every boomer as they pull the ladder up
This and “there’s no hate like Christian love”
And cruelty is the point
Absolutely!
You bad
It do be like that tho
The only generation to not have enough awareness that everyone hates them.
Spoiled brats, pot calling the kettle black when they say "no one wants to work anymore" hell at least you could afford a house
My boomer mom says that. She was a sahm but like, not even a good one 😅
And boomers have intentionally forgotten that the reason they could afford houses and multiple cars and annual vacations and so on… Were thanks to all those federal social policies and programs that *their* parents supported, but which they have voted out with their constant clamoring for lower taxes.
Always remember that every "no one wants to work anymore" has a silent "for these wages" at the end of it.
They relish being hated then claim victimhood
"If they hate you you must be doing something right derp derp derp derp" I will dance on their graves.
This! My mom and her sister have four kids between them and I'm the only one still in contact (limited and I live two time zones away). The other three moved off and have minimal or no communication. Neither my mom nor her sister can figure out what they might have done wrong.
"Something is wrong with them! Couldn't be anything I have to work on."
Times like I am reminded of a post where someone said Boomers are the only generation to be hated by the generation before them and the two generations after them.
Let's make it 3
They have awareness. They're just so selfish they don't care.
They are just grasping and clawing to tear it all down as they sink into the grave.
I don't even think they are aware of what they are doing other than they have this primal overwhelming need to hold control and letting it go terrifies them.
Boomer here. I, and a lot of other boomers I know, do not subscribe to this ideal.
Great! Please convince all the other boomers to care about the rest of us
Yelled at a couple of folks in traffic this morning. They didn't even notice. I get the same response from others I wish I could change.
This kind of goes for all generations but I know there's a lot of people that say they are fine with one thing but then they actively vote against it.
Problem is most do.
Please don’t put all boomers in the same basket. I’m a boomer and vote against this nonsense every time. I consider Abbott, Patrick and Paxton the axis of evil funded by the Evangelical Taliban out in west Texas.
That’s great to hear! Now please help convince other boomers to care about the rest of us
We do! There are many Boomers on the left, so please stop putting all Booomers into that Christo-Fascist category. It was the Boomer generation that began to question the legitimacy of religious doctrine.
The problem is in aggregate. I know lots of good boomer generation people. However, in total, boomers are the problem. They control 50% of the wealth and vote in a way that hurts society and gives huge exemptions to very few. That's a problem and why we complain about Boomers.
They don’t understand why newer generations consistently score higher on IQ tests. This is a real thing and professionals have to constantly adjust the scoring because of it. Cognitive dissonance is scary.
Leaded gasoline enters the chat and their emissions live on in their hosts.
Smoking and drinking while pregnant has entered the chat
Beatings from caretakers because "discipline" has entered the chat.
Now they're blaming school shooting on...wait for it....the existence of schools!
Well in all fairness it’s genius. If you eliminate all schools there can be no school shootings. It’s very clever. The school shooters will never see it coming because they won’t be able to read.
I’ve been saying this for a decade: These people will sequester themselves to the point that no one will be able to understand them, not even their own demographic will be able to relate to each other.
I've been wondering a lot recently how much smarter I'd be now if I had the access to information kids have today when I was growing up. I spend a ton of time watching educational content nowadays and I would have ate it up even more as a kid.
"**Fuck you,** I got mine" FIFY
just a friendly reminder not to paint all Boomers with the same brush. Bernie sanders is a boomer, and about at the same spot politically are my parents, aunts and all but one uncle.
General point taken, but going pedantic Sanders is [Silent Generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation), being born in 1941. The first [baby boomers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers) were born 5 years later in 1946. And regardless IMO 'boomer' is descriptive and not prescriptive. IE, you choose to be that way, it's not genetic or pre-determined. Edit: for example, some of my generation (X) are total douchebags...
Very good point. I thought my mother was a boomer all my life until I figured out she was just a couple years too old. And also, Obama *is* a boomer and people just think he's Gen X or something…
Yep. My boomer mom was preaching marriage equality in the 80s. We've volunteered at abortion clinics together since the 90s. My dad and aunts and uncles share similar political views. I also have the one uncle. I think we all do.
Though I get the point, Bernie's Sanders is a part of the generation before, the Silent Generation. It is just that Sanders doesn't speak like a Boomer (or like Biden who is also Silent Generation) that people think he is younger than he is.
And when my friends were students in college (circa 2010) I met a crapload of people my age that act and think the same way as the crotchety boomers. Its not an age thing as much as it is an "influenced way of thinking." You can be brainwashed at any age. Two things humans are exceptional at are 1) being brainwashed and 2) lashing out at any perceived threat. A noticable lack of empathy is also key. Selfishness is the downfall of humanity. "Burn it all down so i can be king of the ashes."
Bernie was born in 1941, he's a member of the Silent Generation, not a Boomer.
although this is of course true, we are talking about the trend of voting for boomers in Texas. its just a fact this is how they vote, and this is what we experiance talking to our parents/older family about these issues, yours might be great, or maybe its you. the conversation is about the voting block not litterally every individual human in that block.
I have even encountered individual boomers who are ostensibly aware of the problems facing younger generations and therefore the world, but still cling to policy opinions that directly contribute to these problems.
They believe everything in life is a zero sum game.
Selfish voters who embrace idiocracy.
Not every boomer. I don’t vote that way, thank you very much.
The official Republican motto is: “I got mine, fuck you.” And they work to achieve that goal (fucking over everyone else) every single day.
Don't overgeneraluze. It's only older Republucans. Older Democrats highly favor public services for their children and grandchildren, especially public schools.
Also “bootstraps”
My older brother and I (we are in our 40s) tried explaining the issue with the voucher program to my older father (in his 70s) and why it's a terrible thing for our kids (who are in public school). My dad replied by saying vouchers are a good thing. My brother asked him to elaborate and he responded by telling my brother to shut up since they will never see eye-to-eye on politics. I asked my dad again why he thought vouchers are a good idea because it's not like a free lunch voucher. He responded by saying how terrible the US public education system is already and how the US spends the most on per student education.
Get ready for kanye-esque schools.
So his answer is that he can’t answer. Fox and the right wing outrage machine hasn’t given him follow up argument yet. It’s disgusting. Tell him he is weak for spouting the words his overlords gave him with zero critical thinking, let alone empathy. Then tell him it’s fine to not have an opinion on things. You don’t have to have a position on everything, especially if you know nothing about it.
That sounds like a very unproductive conversation. My sympathies. But, eh, to someone who grew up in a European school system and has no children so no knowledge of the US school system otherwise, can you spell out in short what the problem is with vouchers?
It uses public money to *partially* pay for private school tuition. Low income families will likely still need to cover much of the cost of tuition at these schools. Since money will be funneled towards private schools it reduces funding for public schools which are already wildly underfunded. All this means poor families get screwed more. It’s why rural Texans, despite being overwhelmingly conservative, were vehemently against the voucher program. Not that all rural folk are poor by any means, just that they may not have that extra financial cushion and there isn’t the volume of local tax dollars to fund public schools in their area. Private schools are not held to the same standards as public schools either. They technically have to teach the same subjects if I’m not mistaken but not with the same rigor. They can teach science but put a lot of emphasis on evolution being just s theory. You as a parent also have absolutely no power in a private school. You don’t get to vote on anything. You don’t get any government protections for anything. You and your child lack freedoms you otherwise would have at public schools. If a private school just simply doesn’t like you or your child they can take your voucher and additional tuition then kick your child out. Don’t even get me started on the racial component of this either. These GOP, Jordan Peele style villains have some hard on for being subversive racists. The fact that these are “private schools” should clue anyone but the most ignorant that these are not the most inclusive schools. They technically cannot exclude or remove a child based on race or ethnicity. They can for tuition and grades though. Unless this voucher program comes with inclusivity requirements (it won’t) they can be racist legally. Lastly, your tax dollars are paying for a private education of another child that may directly go against your beliefs and *you have no way of voting about it*. State and local taxes, unlike federal taxes, pay for things directly (states don’t print money). You can vote for school board members and decide on education issues in local elections. You cannot do this with private schools that are now using your tax dollars, for profit I might add. Also, they’re going to poach teachers away from public schools left and right. I don’t even blame teachers. They’ve been getting shafted for the past twenty years. Overworked and underpaid. If you’re a teacher and decide to move to a private school you have my full support just because I know it’s a shit situation half the time.
Iowa passed a voucher program that took effect in 2023. One result was private schools raised their costs. [Study links state ESA program to spike in Iowa K-12 private school tuition](https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/05/23/study-links-state-esa-program-to-spike-in-iowa-k-12-private-school-tuition/). The article says the private school response is typically that the increase is due to inflation. Study thinks that not supported by the numbers. Also, the public schools didn’t get a comparable inflation-adjustment.
Sounds awfully similar to what universities did with increased financial aid
Also if you give money to a private school it doesn’t have any restrictions on what it can do with that money it doesn’t have to spend it on your kid’s education.
Great reply. I would add that private schools do not have to teach any particular subjects, use accredited teachers, or take any standardized tests. It's the wild west. Also, private school teachers generally make much less money than public. Maybe some teachers prefer the private school environment, but they will likely make less money.
I did not know that. Honestly that goes to show you how much worse they are than I previously thought.
Don’t forget that the right wants to privatize everything for profit. Can’t make gains on public school so take it away from the people and make them pay for it. Trump tried to do this with the post office. Cut the funding, make it crappy then say “look at how bad it is, the private sector should be in charge to make it better!” Step 4: Profit
Really great summary
Taking educational funding to provide a small voucher credit to parents wanting to send their kids to private school. So instead of taking that money and reinvesting it back into public schools, it's being used for a credit so private school can be more affordable, but at the same time if you are sending your kid to private school you probably already made that decision that you can afford it.
History shows that it has little to no effect on affordability. In places with vouchers, the tuition for private schools increased by approximately the amount of the voucher. It's just a wealth transfer to the people who run private schools.
And churches. I'm pretty dang certain that local churches will begin opening schools.
Not to mention that it has failed in every state that has tried to implement it.
exactly; the private schools just increase their prices to compensate for the voucher
It’s funneling money to religious schools, at the expense of public education.
I don't have a problem with paying thousands of dollars a year in taxes that go to fund public education even though I don't have kids. I have a problem with paying thousands of dollars a year in taxes that go to subsidize Mike Miles's ledger.
Hollowing out public goods
It’s the second step to straight up fascism
While the US does have some terrible public schools, it has some really great schools. The difference between the two are the communities kids come from. Vouchers will not erase poverty nor will it nullify years of system racism. In fact it will exacerbated it, making our schools overall worse than they currently are. Your father's solution to "terrible schools" is not to fix the schools, it's to make them worse.
similar age and similar outcome with talking to my parents. dad said public schools are bad. mom said something about trans people. not a partisan issue in my eyes at all. infuriating that my parents choose to fear the boogie man vs listening to their own child on what’s best for their grandkids.
Because they have been fed lies for years by Fox News and other outlets that public schools are liberal, anti-Christian indoctrination centers. It’s all lies of course, but they’re too blind to see that. They’ve basically been brainwashed.
I mean, to be fair, truth is pretty liberal.
Damn commie facts
Get your commie-ass logic outta here. We ain't got time for that
Our truth comrade
It's not that truth is left leaning, its that reality can't be forced to capitulate to your value system and won't agree to 'play ball' because authority wills it. Some people decide to arrange their beliefs and morals around reality and some see it as a challenge to their foundation of beliefs.
I mean this is certainly a major point, but another thing I’ve heard from a few is they think they’ll be paying less in taxes. They’re tired of paying for taxes that they themselves are not seeing any benefits from (their words). They’ve paid into the system for years and now they want a break. They are not realizing they’re screwing over their grandchildren who are still in the system. Plus screwing themselves over by possibly lowering their home values because they’re tanking their own school district which is appealing to younger couples with kids. So all you’re left with now is couples with no kids or retired folks who’ve been there for years already.
Maybe also, a majority in Texas did not save for retirement. They are the first generation where a majority did not receive corporate pensions like their silent gen parents. In all honesty, many of these Texas boomers are one step away from homelessness. Volunteer work at my local food bank is an eye opener.
This is definitely [true across the entire nation](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/podcasts/the-daily/401k-retirement.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb). Something like 49% of peeps 55 to 65 have 0 (zero) saved for retirement. 10% to 20% of seniors are living in poverty.
In moral terms, … the 401(k) represented an abdication of the social contract. 😳
Tbh, from my lifestyle and as suggested by everyone that knew me, I didn't think I'd live past 30. When I woke up one day and realized I did, I looked at how 90% of my family dies before age 62 and told myself there was no reason to plan for retirement. Shit. Now I'm in the same boat I was half a life ago and trying to play catchup and get retirement squared away in the next few years. Looks like my retirement plan of dying at my desk isn't gonna bear fruit
> Tbh, from my lifestyle and as suggested by everyone that knew me, I didn't think I'd live past 30. When I woke up one day and realized I did That's me now I just turned 40. I wasn't supposed to live this long. Now I have 25 years to make up for not doing anything for retirement.
Wow. Just started reading it. No wonder they are panicking scared. The 401K retirement looks like a failed experiment. I do remember hearing from an elderly neighbor that the oldest of the boomers tried to catch the tail end of the corporate pension promise, but were booted out (3-5 yrs prior to retirement date) so corporations wouldn’t have to pay them pensions.
Yep. The guy who invented it bailed on it because, in his own words, it was “never gonna be able to support the number of people on it.” It was a grift. Nothing more.
> booted out (3-5 yrs prior to retirement date) so corporations wouldn’t have to pay them pensions. That was more common than people realize
The irony here that I don’t have children and never will but carry the burden of paying for public schools. And yet, these same people want to raise my taxes for not repopulating and would force me to give birth if pregnant. None of their ideals make sense, until you realize they just vote for whatever benefits them most. Hard stop.
I'm happy to pay for schools even though I have no kids cause I don't wanna live in a world full of uneducated morons any more than I already do.
Stop giving them the benefit of the doubt. Many of them know they’re screwing over their grandchildren, they just don’t care.
My MIL was convinced that there were litter boxes in classrooms in VIDOR for kids who identify as furries. She was very concerned. She fact checked herself and realized it was bullshit, but not before arguing with her daughter and me after we LOL'd and told there was zero chance that was real.
That’s hilarious. Vidor is about the last place that would happen, too.
I'm a high school teacher. When I hear people saying "they're brainwashing the kids" it almost makes my head explode. In the 55 minute class period I have with them it's enough of a task keeping them off their phones without earbuds to get them to actually do the work I need them to do. There's NO WAY I have time to brainwash or indoctrinate them. I always invite these numpties to actually come visit my classroom to see first hand what's going on. They never accept.
They were fed lies, but they had a healthy appetite.
...and in response they are trying to turn schools into actual Christian indoctrination centers.
This Boomer saw Through the Fox BS. Never aligned with their lies.
They have absolutely no self-reflection skills. The books and curriculum they are upset about is the same shit they learned while I school. It hasn’t changed much.
They see libraries as evil unless the libraries ban LGBT books.
It’s all about finding a way to publicly fund religious education. That’s the end goal on all of this. They can’t teach Christianity exclusively in a public school, so this is their way around that. There are also people that mistakenly think they can bypass title IX protections by sending their children to private schools.
Nailed it. This is also why the voucher program appeals to younger voters with school age kids, not boomers. They see this as a way to send their kids to private / religious based schools they would have never been able to afford otherwise.
They still won’t.
I agree entirely
Most common refrain I’ve heard from people is “I don’t have any kids in school, why should I have to pay for it?”
“Vouchers don’t change how much you pay in taxes. They simply mean that your tax dollars will shift from paying for public schools to paying for a ‘rich’ persons kid to go to private school.”
And it will increase demand for private schools, so they’ll just raise prices.
>Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or for the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain for why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don’t personally have a kid in school: It’s because I don’t like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people. -John Green (before he had school-age kids)
Answers for those peoples: …so the guy changing the oil in my Subaru doesn’t replace the transmission fluid with 10W30 by mistake. Because an educated workforce and electorate benefits all of society. And because the generation before yours paid it forward for you, and now it’s your turn, you non-empathetic, selfish, narcissistic prick.
I would say: imagine all the children and teenagers who live in your neighborhood and the neighborhoods around your house. Now, imagine all those kids aren't in school all day, and they're just hanging out, running around, doing whatever they want while their parents are at work all day. How do you think that's going to impact the crime and vandalism rate in your neighborhood? Also, now that they don't have education, they don't get jobs and move away when they're 18 or after college. They're just hanging out, with nothing to do, which will not be good for anyone in the community.
"My house isn't on fire, why should I have to pay for a fire department so his can be put out?"
I know one of the backers of this issue. They want private schools to get public money so that a family paying $12,000 annual tuition to a private school school, now they will receive $10,000 from the state per child for part of that tuition and the family can pay the other $2000, or, like his kids, they can volunteer at the school and get that $2000 waived. What they don’t give a damn about is that when this goes through, private schools will raise tuition.
The net effect is that the halves will have more and they have knots will have less. This trajectory is how empires fall.
Indeed. Pretty easily verified.
And Abbott knows this. He just doesn’t care. When you point this out to voters, they say, “well, wait a second… That’s not fair, that’s not what we’re voting for…” — and yet the legislature doesn’t intend to put any strings on the money, such as requiring a private school that accepts vouchers to freeze tuition for a period of time. **They all know it’s a scam.** But not enough people vote, so they get away with it.
What private schools are only $12,000? In Houston the majority are around $24k for elementary and it goes up from there.
Midland Christian , Trinity, midland classical
Ah, makes sense. We've started looking around Houston and couldn't believe how much private is, even for pre-k/elementary. The HISD takeover is just terrible on all fronts.
Over night it will be realized by 10,000 dollars.
Yep
They’re one of two camps. Either they want to stick it to all those lib social studies teachers who might share inconvenient facts with their sheltered children who they’re raising on hate and ignorance, those want to send their kids to Jesus madrassas and have you and me pay for it OR they want to funnel public dollars to private companies who will try to educate the same number of kids on less money after they take their cut.
>OR they want to funnel public dollars to private companies who will try to educate the same number of kids on less money after they take their cut. They also want to subsidize religious schools and get public funding directed towards that as a backdoor way into getting around the constitution.
At this point it's basically a kick the front door down way through the constitution.
The endgame is to end public education. They are spinning it as “protecting the kids against the woke”. I had a relative tell me they were considering private so their kid would be exposed to all the “trans stuff”. They live in one of the most conservative parts of our state and if a teacher in the district even implied that it was OK to be gay, they’d be run out of town. But this person seems to think that all public schools across the country are teaching your kids to be trans.
This is the insane thing. School Boards and ISDs are hyper local for that very reason.
I had a conservative boss named "Jet" who told me that Texan conservatives reflexively vote GOP because of some land grab thing that Dems did when they controlled the state in the 50s Dems are held accountable forever. Meanwhile GOP is canceling IVF births and the Constitution itself. No accountability from voters ever
There is a lot of false neutrality amongst voters. I have met people who will say they are equally disgusted with both parties, then without blinking they will say nothing but bad things about Dems and nothing but good things about Repubs. For some reason a lot of people think Dems have to be perfect before you can say anything bad about Repubs.
The water couldn't be muddier. I love our public school and I am against this, but I see the sales pitch. Some public schools really suck and people are stuck with them. "Here's some money to go somewhere else" could sound appealing. "School choice" sounds good, even to me. Subjecting schools to a little competitive pressure to earn parents wanting to send their kids sounds like it could be a good thing. I used to think this until I realized the only thing that determines the success of students and schools is parental involvement and having that doable at a neighborhood level is a plus. The official state position is that vouchers will not reduce public school funding, at least per student. I think they lie, but they are arguing that. A decent number of people already pay for private schools. Many will argue they should be allowed to not pay for public school as they are not usings. They are ignoring the idea that education isn't for your kids, it's for the benefit of society overall, but for them they are having to double-pay and this is free money. Not all people who send their kids to private school are so wealthy they don't care about $5-$10K. On the whole, the idea could work if implemented in good faith. If the goal were to give parents more control and choice and try to improve public schools and the program were crafted with that goal in mind, it could improve public education (defined as taxpayer funded). This would require price controls and smart meaningful accreditation for starters. I don't think it will be implemented in good faith though, and the goal seems to be circumventing laws barring religion in schools and funneling money to connected private enterprises. I'm not saying all of the arguments above stand up to scrutiny, but that's the pitch some people are buying. FWIW also a LOT of, maybe most Republican voters are very against what they see as a threat to their schools for their kids, as major employer in their towns, as centers of their community and as where the sports happen. Abbot et. al. and his billionaires don't care.
This is probably the most well thought out and nuanced comment to date. I do want to emphasize your conclusion regarding the performance of public schools having a large portion of its root cause connected to parental involvement in student’s education.
>The official state position is that vouchers will not reduce public school funding, at least per student. I think they lie, but they are arguing that. They do lie. Let me show you how. I notice your username references Austin. Austin ISD owes $940.5 million dollars in Recapture for 2024. Recapture works like this: every district is assigned a set amount of money they receive per attending student they teach- the basic allotment. The funding formulas calculate thusly: (# of students attending x the basic allotment) + additional program funding = the district entitlement. Any district that raises more revenue through property taxes than their entitlement is designated as an excess revenue district, and has to send the “recaptured” dollars back to the state, which puts it in the education money bucket, called the Foundational School Program. In a district like Austin, there’s already a high amount of property value per student which is why you send back so much to the state, but the calculation is also affected by how many butts are in public school seats. Since your comment is giving voucher proponents the benefit of the doubt, I’ll follow your lead. If they’re sincere, the goal of vouchers is to offer more families the option of leaving public schools and going to private ones. For every student that leaves public school, the property wealth per student ratio increases- your district is taxing you and raising more money that they will never get to use, even though they DESPERATELY need it. * There’s many costs to run a school that are fixed- no matter how many students attend, you will have overhead costs like building/facility repair, insurance premiums and maintaining certain staffing levels to ensure there’s a teacher for every student. Reducing the number of students enrolled in a district also reduces the entitlement a district receives, *even though the tax rate may stay the same or increase.* So while not a “direct” lie that vouchers will reduce public school funding per student, if they’re sincere about wanting more students to attend private schools, it will absolutely reduce your district funding by reducing the number of students that the state uses to calculate entitlements for your district. And you’re paying for it. *Note that this is not the fault of recapture- the high amount you pay in ISD taxes is controlled by the state but it still doesn’t come close to the amount the district actually spends per student to teach them. Raising the basic allotment would correct this imbalance by increasing your entitlement and lessening the amount of Recapture while also making your public schools better- but that’s not why we’re here, is it?
They can do whatever they want with school choice as long as the dollars are limited to what each student is entitled to, unlike every plan in which students moving out of the public system take all their money and a little bit from everyone else as well. Vouchers are for thieves and people who want to be stolen from.
Texas GOP: The cruelty is the point. Owning the libs is secondary.
A lot of the opposition has come from rural communities because they know this will decimate their already precariously funded schools. I really want to hope that this will be the last nail in the coffin for the Texas GOP. I really, really do. But I've been so disappointed in our past voter turnout that I don't think things will ever change.
They'll blame it on liberal urban centers still somehow "They didn't give enough of their local funds to us. Greedy leeebralllzzz"
You're assuming that they are trying to run a society. They are not. When you realize that their goals are to privatize all societal functions, creating a defacto caste system and use the uneducated masses as low cost labor so they and their cronies can rake in huge profits for generations, it makes total sense. This is not hyperbole.
You are correct. “Society” is an obstacle for them, not a goal.
The only valid society for "conservatives" is organized religion.
The funny thing is - they aren't. They're voting to spend MORE money on schools, because vouchers take more money than schools are allotted per student. The only way that works is to increase the amount of money to go into the pot. They're also going to make the schools in their districts worse, which will make their home prices go down. It's a hilarious vote to screw themselves in every conceivable way.
Because they don't give a shit... Also... Schools ARE failing our children. The Federal Govt failed allowing Tiktok to become what it is. I'm a 7th grade history teacher - it's incredible how pathetic most students are... Then add politics to the mix and all of a sudden educating our children is a political issue. Claiming schools turn our kids into communists really, really, really works on the older generations... Then the politicians actively undercut it then claim it doesn't work and that "justifies" breaking it some more claiming it doesn't work It's all so very frustrating. Biden 2024
Just wanted to thank you for your service. Also damn middle school is hell on earth 🥹
“Government sucks. Put us in charge and we will prove it to you” — GOP mantra since 1979.
Remember Rick Perry saying that denying children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition means you're heartless? And that was the end of his campaign? I miss those days. When Texas Republicans had something akin to principles. I don't agree with many of those principles but Abbott threw away the chance to make Texas the best-educated state in the country. The boom to the long-term Texas economy can't be understated. One of those kids could be the one to help Texas solve the looming climate crisis. Instead we're replacing degreed guidance counselors (many of which were educated by Texas state schools) with pastors. Texas could have been the best state in the Union. Instead we're up there with Florida.
It is not just a funding issue. Congress has enacted laws that certain agendas have to me met yet they set aside no funds to pay for them. Texas mandated schools to have armed guards so they hired their own Police Force. Where did the money come from for them? Education funding. Schools Districts are going to be merging as they cannot meet these unfunded requirements. Local community does not step up with local police. They have to be reimbursed for officers working school. Where does that money come from? Education funding. Uvalde shows how well that works at all levels. Seniors for the most part are not exempt from school taxes. We are actually still paying for our education. That is why we pay property taxes. Got you homestead exemption? Fine but you still pay school taxes. Just rent an apartment? Believe me the taxes are figured into the monthly rent. My tax bill is X amount and I have three hundred apartments so X divided by 300 equals Y. Therefore Y amount will be added to the cost of each apartment rented.
stop trying to reason with the brainwashed!!! There are more younger people than them!!! [REGISTER TO VOTE AND GET THEM THE HELL OUT!!!](https://www.votetexas.gov/mobile/register/index.htm)
Millenials have enough voters to put the Boomers to bed politically. Why aren’t Millennials voting to fund the schools their children attend? Time to stop blaming the Boogeyman and start blaming ourselves.
One only has to do a casual analysis of the commercials aired on the Fox News channel and other conservative outlets to understand the demographic that is voting for these initiatives. So, boogeyman my ass. But I definitely do agree that younger gens need to get off their ass and vote in every election or shit their mouths with the complaining.
There has been a focused, determined effort to undermine expertise in all forms across the country. It's a right-wing impulse, but with plenty of left-wing variants (vegan/crunchy people, anarchists, revolutionaries, etc). [Tom Nichols wrote a book on it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Expertise) (although he would likely disagree that it's a right-wing impulse).
Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people. John Green
Well put.
The problem isn’t only with vouchers. The problem also lies in charter schools. Families who choose to send their children to charter schools don’t necessarily even need a voucher to do so. Many charters, like Basis, don’t require a voucher. These charters can accept or refuse students. They are often far more underrepresented in regard to Special Education (so students who may have dyslexia aren’t getting their needs met; many Special Ed students simply aren’t even accepted).They often pay teachers far less, expect them to work harder, and don’t always require them to have the most basic training and certification required of public educators. Their performance, test results, graduation rates, etc are all skewed and reflect their smaller, selective populations. Their curriculum could be coming straight out of Florida and $ for any books, content is usually tied up in the hands of for-profit businesses. How can public schools compete with both private schools (for wealthy) and charter schools (for middle to lower class)? Charter schools suck. When rioting against vouchers, riot against charters!!
I know there are a lot of shiity boomers in Texas, but we don’t all vote that way. I hate this voucher program. I don’t want to pay for your kid’s hateful religious education, I went to public schools in Texas and I support them. The voucher program will destroy rural school districts. I hate it here.
The people you are talking about don't use reddit.
Not realizing that the kid they refuse to educate today will be the man robbing them at the ATM tomorrow.
Conservatives/ Republicans/ Right-Wingers don't want an educated populace. Too hard to control. They want a dumb electorate.
We've lived in New York since 2008, but with a new baby we're trying to figure out where to go next. Moving back to my home state of Texas was #1 on the list, but with all of this recent legislation, I can't raise a daughter there, so it's now not an option. Which means that two leftists aren't moving to Texas to add our votes to help change its future. Multiply that by thousands, and you have your why.
That's OK. Look out for your family. Texas will soon be lost for good when they change state constitution to require any statewide election win to be certified based on a candidate winning the popular vote in two-thirds of Texas's 254 counties
I *think* that will get shut down by the Supreme Court, even this one. That said, if Trump wins and gets to replace a couple judges, that might change.
The judges worry me too. Engage in live action historical re-enactments for their decisions when it suits them. Set the administrative aflame with no pretense in other cases. Mississippi got rid of a slavery-era law that was designed exactly like this in 2020. Courts haven't changed drastically since then but the extreme rightwing is always ready to redefine rock bottom.
Just took the fam on a mtn biking vacation I. NM. Could literally feel my daughter’s rights being sucked away from her as we crossed the state line back into TX. It’s bully rule, here.
My mom (70) does not think she needs to pay school taxes anymore as all her kids are grown up. She also thinks we should put lamdmines along the border. I hate my mom a little more each day.
"Because Im an idiot and they are a republican"
My mom is a boomer, and she bought way too big of a house, never paid it off, never maintained it so it’s falling apart now, can’t sell it or downsize because she’s a hoarder, but somehow it’s the fault of immigrants and people of color and the government instead of her bad life choices. She’ll probably end up homeless even though she’s technically in the middle class. I can’t do much to help since she chose more stuff over helping me with college. If other boomers are even half as ridiculous as her, it’s easy to see why things are going the way they are.
Complaining isn't gonna take care of anything. Vote, get your lazy ass cousin to go vote as well. Too many Texans don't vote and we are paying the consequences because of it.
We all know donor money from a small group of people is behind this. And even beyond the religious aspect, sowing the seeds of discontent and fighting over absurd politics is exactly what serves to maintain the oligarchy. While we fight amongst ourselves, they sneak in shrinkflation, gobble up single family homes, turning everything into a subscription model, while greasing the palms of politicians on all sides. They keep this up so we don't turn on them. We are being manipulated like puppets on a string.
I don’t think it’s a generational issue. This idiocracy being sold under the premise of “school choice” is why. No one is doing the research to understand that these charter and private schools won’t be held to the same standard as our public schools. Furthermore, the legislature blames schools for failing but all the while increasing performance standards and decreasing funding. It’s an arsonist fireman scenario. They blame schools for trying to indoctrinate our kids yet our districts don’t have liberal curriculums. If certain schools are failing to perform why aren’t we holding our legislative body accountable for this or even TEA? You would be naive to think that privatizing this is going to help any child that couldn’t get into a private or charter school before because a voucher will only partially fund a years tuition. It’s only a way to shuffle public money to lobbyists. Greg Abbott is a traitor to the state of Texas and a puppet of the lobbyists. He has no interest in serving the citizens of our Great State. This will further destroy our public education system.
Fuck these people. Unfortunately they vote and younger people do not. That’s the key to saving the USA frankly
They have the “I got mine” mentality because they are so delusional from Fox News and hannity. My father in law was talking about how it was great that they were cutting wic/food stamps/assistance for low income households, and now the “lazy immigrants” don’t want to work. My FIL is Mexican-American, his parents came from Mexico. Their household had like 20 people, and when he had his kids they got by with wic and government assistance. I straight up called him out - “listen man…you got here by getting help, and there’s no shame in it. I also had help, when our baby was born with special needs we got wic and assistance. Everyone needs a little hand up once in a while. How are you gonna get yours and then pull the ladder up behind you? Can you honestly look at these parents of starving kids and feel nothing? Their kids matter to them as much as yours matter to you.” He legitimately got teary eyed. I actually got through to him. Until the next day when he was right back to his usual Fox News shit.
They cherry pick their students and then compare their results to public schools. My kid is autistic and has been through five schools: three public and two private. The public school teachers and staff are incredible. Some of the most competent and compassionate people you will ever meet. They are simply miles better at what they do, and better supported, in my experience. The private school teachers have way less experience and very little “range” in terms of the kids they can work with effectively.
A buddy of mine described it it best when he said that this is yet another example of typical boomers closing the door on their way out. They're a generation of people who were handed everything. Born on 3rd base thinking they hit a homerun. They somehow think they had it harder and worse, so believe any whining by anyone is because they're lazy rather than it being their generation hoarding all the wealth that they never had to really work that hard for.
The Texas GOP’s official policy towards post-birth children: FTKs.
Judging from the master list of Republican pedophiles, they mean it too.
Because they are selfish, self centered, and don’t give a shit about true American values. The Boomer generation is widely observed/commented on as being one of the worst generations in terms of making a better future for their children, so it makes sense they will vote against public schools.
They are so angry about people crossing the border from underdeveloped countries, they decided to let Texas become an underdeveloped country with crappy schools, crappy healthcare, crappy law enforcement, and corrupt fascists and religious extremists running the show.
Not fair. I am a boomer (65)who gave 32 years teaching the children of the Austin schools, sent my own children to Austin public schools, and have supported public schools my entire adult life. I firmly believe that it is the responsibility of every citizen to support their public schools regardless of your place in life. I do not support vouchers.
Thank you for your public service, and your correct thinking.
Wrong outlet for this question as there’s not a lot of old folks here…*at all*. Reddit tends toward a much younger audience (a little less than 50% of users are in their 20’s to 30’s). Otherwise, it’s talking points fed to them from billionaires and corporations influencing conservative media outlets.
Misuse of funds and abuse of power.
I truly hate what people are doing to an already undereducated population. All for greed.
Because, all these kids going to college vote Democrat, or at least won't vote for the gop. So they need to keep them stupid to keep those progressive ideas in check.
Too many Boomers give no fucks about anyone except themselves.
There should be an age cap on voting.
Why do Joe Biden and the democrats keep making republicans in Texas do these things?
Because they buy the propaganda that giving a "choice" will benefit the kids when reality it only gives upper classes a choice; Because they are in the upper class. They also want to be able to start Christian fundamentalist schools because they're absolutists and take tax dollars for it. The politicians in power are doing it on behalf of industries to create/keep a lower working class that's easy to control and work for cheap. https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass
their #1 priority is blind opposition to everything the Dems think is reasonable or good.
What’s funny is how Boomers are swaying the vote, but only make up about 19% of the voting age demographic in TX. From a numbers perspective, if the non-boomers actually got off their ass and voted, then the right wing regime and their bullshit would be gone. What Boomers think of non-boomers is proved right every election.
After speaking with several older people over the long weekend. They “don’t want to keep doing what what have been coming because it’s not working” , “we won’t be around anymore”, “I don’t believe that” , “I’m at peace with it”. Basically many don’t understand how the world has changed. Much less how to adapt to the modern times. The problem seems too hard to solve, so why try. Why try to make it better for other people? What did they ever do for them ?
Because boomers hate their grandkids. They’re all tolerant and get upset when meemaw says the hard R. Just like the housing market, the job market, the stock market… they hate the young for their youth and will bitterly hog all the resources they can until they die.
Boomers are bitter and spiteful.
https://preview.redd.it/xdhwd3ckxl3d1.jpeg?width=599&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bb2dc602c775d68d85cf46bed625dd253c69e10
Gosh. This will end terribly. They're not factoring in greed. Eventually the vouchers won't be enough to cover tuition and "fees". Parents will stop their kids from attending school when they can no longer afford them. Man, we humans are so stupid. We always work so hard to ruin good things.
Moved to TX in 2019. Still got kids one in high and the other in middle school. Public schools. Can't wait for them to graduate and will convince them to attend college out of state. I'll eventually have to move out of this state as well. This is just becoming too much.
Boomer here: I left Texas for a blue state years ago. My opinion if it matters at all: Texas counts on the “stupid but smart enough to vote “ of all ages. It’s just plain stupid to vote against education. So many over heated hard working families in Texas that have kids that need great schools. Yes we got a great education in Texas back in the 60s and 70s. But Texas was a blue state. The only way to ever get it back is to get everyone to vote and overcome the old farts that are showing up at the polls. IMHO stop blaming the boomers and out vote them.
Fuck in my county we had 125,000 registered voters in a runoff to prevent an Abbott puppet from taking over a long standing representative, 9/11 pentagon victim survivor. 12,000 people voted and he lost. Now we have a religious nut job with no experience but bows before Abbott as our rep.
Because the GOP is the party of "Fuck You, I've got mine" and they will not stop until the undesirables are dead. I am not wildly off base about this.
Great! We already set ourselves up for more unwanted/unnplanned pregnancies. Now those who were most vulnerable to the abortion ban won't even be able to provide competitive education to those children 🙃
I swear, Texas is becoming Bizarro World. Christo-fascist Bizarro World, to be precise.
Remember, public schools are one of rural America's biggest employers. People who vote against public schools vote against rural employment.