Raise Your Hand Texas believes that a school-voucher program would especially harm rural areas

With lawmakers again considering the creation of a statewide school-voucher program, “Raise Your Hand Texas” urges them to think twice. According to Jackson Griffon [as in “chiffon”]—one of its statewide “regional-advocacy directors”—such a program would especially harm rural areas… “Nearly half of the school-districts throughout Texas are rural. And, vouchers—also known as ‘education-savings accounts’—would hurt public schools, by forcing rural communities to pay into a system that they’re likely unable to participate in. That’s because access to private schools in those areas is often limited. In rural communities, just four or five students leaving for a private school, or private virtual-school, under a voucher-program would ultimately cut a teacher’s salary—or harm a local school’s ability to fund extracurricular activities. We’ve seen many states set up a small program, and it quickly expands its harmful impacts to all communities—with no public oversight or accountability. Public schools are at the heart of rural communities—and vouchers would leave their students behind.” To learn more, visit “raise-your-hand-texas”-dot-org.