Monday, July 14, 2025
By Don W. Allison
Today’s Perspective
I remember during the last Texas legislative session, concentration was on school vouchers. I remember the promise to help families pay for private school tuition and other education-related expenses. The program was to create education savings accounts that would be an essential part of the $ 1 billion school choice initiative.
I also remember the promise of no STAAR Testing for students' participation in school choice. But there were concerns that school choice would take public funds from already underfunded public schools, and there would be a lack of accountability and oversight in private schools compared to public schools. Plus, there were above the surface, and beneath the surface that private schools would practice discrimination against students' religions, sexual orientation, or family income.
Some were concerned about the cost of the voucher program skyrocketing and having a negative impact on taxpayers.
Regardless of concerns and the impact on taxpayers, Governor Greg Abbott was tickled red when the bill passed both chambers. He made sure doubters watched him sign the bill with a televised signing and statement.
What Abbott and the legislative body didn't consider was that Texas schools are no different than other schools in other states. They all rely on federal education funding for some programs.
After the Trump administration decided to delay over $6 billion in grants, states across the country, including Texas are starting to become worried that the delay will have a significant impact on the school vouchers.
Texas is expected to lose $600 million in anticipated education funding due to the delay, and that represents more than 16% of the state’s total federal K-12 funding, which would impact ‘crucial programs like after-school initiatives, professional development for teachers, and resources for English language learners.’ The pause on bilingual education funding is deeply concerning for Texas because a large percentage of students are bilingual learners.
Like other school districts across the country, Texas had already finalized plans for the upcoming school year based on expected federal funding. Now they face difficulties with either delaying some, or most of those plans, or finding alternative funding sources.
What the delay in funding has caused is a reality for Texas, whose public schools already rank near the bottom nationally in per-student spending. The disparities in funding have somewhat of an equalized system where the state provides additional funds to districts with insufficient local property tax revenue, and this includes wealthy areas that are also operating below adequate funding levels.
Nobody, but the Trump administration knows if the delay is permanent, or just a pause, but the concerns over the delay are much more far-reaching than Washington, D.C.
In The News
I Remember the 2002 Fourth of July Hill Country Floods. This Year, the Water Returned
On July 4, 2002, my childhood home just south of Kerr County flooded after a heavy rainstorm moved through the Texas Hill Country, hitting the headwaters that feed the Medina and Guadalupe rivers hard. That morning 23 years ago, I, age 8, woke up in a cabin at an overnight summer camp near Kerrville rattled but safe after a night of timber-shaking thunder and rain, not knowing that 20 miles away my mother and brother were taking refuge in the attic of our home as the waters rose around them.
One Black Texas father is grieving the loss of his whole world after catastrophic flash flooding occurred July 4th weekend. After telling a reporter how he lost his wife and son in a TV interview, what happened next made many viewers go from heartbroken to downright angry.
Documents Show FEMA Calls Went Unanswered. Kristi Noem Claims It’s Fake News
Facing a New York Times report citing documents showing that thousands of calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) went unanswered in the days following the devastating Texas floods earlier this month, Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem deployed a favored strategy among Trump and his cronies: cry fake news.
Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?
In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."
Trump defends federal government’s response to Hill Country floods during Texas visit
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Texas lawmakers on Friday defended the federal government’s response to the deadly July Fourth flooding in Central Texas, claiming that aid was quickly dispatched to reeling communities after the floodwaters swept through.
Message from the publisher:
A Texas Perspective is designed to be informative, historical, and educational, reflecting the ever-evolving political cultures in the country that no longer prioritize voters' interests.
There's more in today's issue of A Texas Perspective Magazine.
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