Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), an advocate for school choice, said in a phone interview with the Lone Star Standard that parents should have the right to select the school their children attend. He believes it will improve students' performance.
"I'm just in favor children's parents being able to take money that the state is providing for the child's education and spend the money on the education that they think will be most effective for their child," Gramm said.
Gramm added, "It's important to establish the point that taxpayers pay money to educate children. The objectives of Texas funding for education is not to serve the teachers, the superintendents, the school board members and all the different people in counties around the state that work for the school system. The objective of the taxpayer is to educate children to have richer, more productive, freer lives."
Gramm is an economist who has had a successful career in public service, academia, and the private sector, according to the American Enterprise Institute, where he currently serves as a senior fellow. Gramm served in Congress for more than 20 years, representing Texas as a representative and later as a senator.
During his time in Congress, he played a major role in passing important legislation such as the Gramm-Latta Budget and the Gramm-Rudman Act, which set limits on federal spending.
He also chaired the Senate Banking Committee and was instrumental in passing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allowed banks, insurance companies, and securities companies to affiliate through a financial services holding company. Before his political career, he taught economics at Texas A&M University for 12 years and has published numerous articles and books on economic topics.
But that distinguished career might never have occurred if Gramm were denied school choice, he explained, recalling his childhood struggles.
“I was a troubled student," he said. "One of the reasons I feel so strongly about this is that I had a difficult time learning to read. I failed the 3rd, 7th and 9th grades. And when I was in the 9th grade, my father died, and he had been a sergeant in the Army, and my mother got $8,000 and she sent me away to private school."
After he went to private school, the young Gramm thrived.
"In three years I graduated with honors." he said. "I had school choice and it worked for me. And I am convinced that there is an extraordinary ability in ordinary people if they had the opportunity. And I believe Texas schools, especially in the inner cities, are full of people who have ability that we just never discover."
When asked if he was left floundering in his public school what would his future have been, Gramm said, "I don't know what I would have ended up doing, but I wouldn't have ended up being a United States senator someday."
The current Texas Legislature is considering educational savings accounts in the state, a type of school voucher program that provides families with public funds to use towards private school tuition or other educational expenses, according to the Texan.
“Parents should not be helpless, they should be able to choose the education option that is best for their child,” said Gov. Greg Abbott at a recent rally for parent empowerment in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Abbott believes expanding school choice options will help ensure that all students have access to high-quality education. “The way to do that is with ESAs [Education Savings Accounts]. We’ve seen them work in other states."
The governor also emphasized that ESAs will be particularly beneficial for low-income families, who may not have the resources to access high-quality education otherwise.
Aside from current and former lawmakers, many are in favor of school choice and ESAs.
One parent and public school teacher spoke about her experience teaching and the education decisions she made for her sons in a video clip published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). TPPF has endorsed ESA's as a solution for parents so their kids can attend other schooling, such as apprenticeships and trade schools, while still attending regular school.
The video details how rural Texan cities are seeing population loss and economic decay due to not enough high-paying jobs.
According to TPPF, the solution to the loss of opportunity and economic decline in rural Texas is ESAs, which place the state funds allocated for each student into an account where parents can decide on an alternative option, such as workforce training, community college, trade or technical school or apprenticeships. High school students will be able to enter the workforce right after graduation while staying local.
Some argue public schools need more funding. But according to Gramm, that "long-running" argument "that the problem with public education is lack of funding" has been debunked. He said numerous studies have shown no correlation between funding and performance in all 50 states and the District in Columbia.
"The vast majority of countries that outperformed the United States spend less money per student than we do," he said. "Our problem is we have a government monopoly and as monopolies in every area of economic and human life. Monopolies underperform because they have no competition, they have no pressure to perform,"
According to Gramm, a sufficient amount of data on school choice has been analyzed by the best universities in the U.S. and "basically the conclusion is that school choice greatly enhances performance."
Although Gramm is unsure if school choice will pass this legislative session, he said, "I think we have a better chance than we've ever had."
He pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, public schools used every opportunity to shut down, children fell behind, remote learning was a "complete failure" and parents saw what their children were learning and "were not happy."
"The bottom line is if you look at every public poll, if you look at ballot questions in the Democrat and Republican primaries, the overwhelming majority of Texans believe in school choice," Gramm said.
