Lawmakers' kids often go to private schools (Texas)

Lawmakers' kids often go to private schools

10:06 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 28, 2004


By CHRISTY HOPPE and AMY EIERMANN / The Dallas Morning News



AUSTIN – As the Legislature grapples with an overhaul of public school funding, a survey shows that one-fourth of state lawmakers with school-aged children have them enrolled in private schools.

The Dallas Morning News survey found that 61 legislators have children in kindergarten through the 12th grade. Of those, 40 have their children in public schools and 15 in private schools. Six have children enrolled in both.

While 34 percent of lawmakers with school-age kids have at least one child in private school, recent data indicate about 6 percent of Texas students go to private schools. Nationally, it is about 12 percent of children, according to the Council of American Private Schools.
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Some lawmakers said that where their children are enrolled has no effect on the public policy decisions they make about state education, but watchdog groups and advocates for public schools said that not being vested in the public school system can effect judgments in subtle ways.
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042904dntexlawmakerskids.ed9f.html

If you fought your way through Texas' public school system in K-12 in your average district (like the one I came through), it makes sense that our wingnut legislators send their kids to private school.

What doesn't make sense is that it's these same headjobs that are supposed to "fix" our school finance situation. I think they'll "fix" it, alright; I think the fix will be on and not in a way useful to Texas' teachers and students!

Check out Congress. Both Dems and Repugs send their kids to private school.

When I lived there from 1982 to 1995. I did not have a single friend who lived in Dallas that sent their kids to the public system. People would move to Plano, Mesquite, or Richardson, or would send their kids to private school. I knew people that were spending $30K per year to send their 2 kids to private schools. I couldn't imagine having to spend this kind of money. I couldn't do it if I had wanted to.

I moved out of Dallas when my daughter was three so I didn't have to face that decision. If I had stayed, I would have moved out of the Dallas Public School system.

I moved to Indianapolis, and was amazed to find that the school systems here were not widely avoided. The change in attitude about the systems was simply astounding.