As Texas debates school vouchers, plan faces a big opponent: high school football
Texas high school football coaches have thrown a flag at the idea of vouchers, citing fears that Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan would take money from athletics and entice players to jump to private schools. The effects of vouchers would be a loss for high school football in a state where 171,000 students played the sport in 2022 and Friday night lights are a cornerstone from Longview to Odessa, current and former public school coaches say. “It will affect athletics. I can tell you that right now,” said former Aledo football coach Tim Buchanan, who won eight state championships in 25 years leading the Bearcats. Their comments come as lawmakers in Austin prepare to debate a wide-ranging education bill in the Texas House that includes an education savings account proposal. It is the furthest a voucher-like program has made it in the chamber this year. The Senate has already passed its version of the program. If the Texas Legislature were a football game, Friday’s debate stands as the key play that could turn the outcome. For months, Gov. Greg Abbott has made education savings accounts a policy priority, vowing to call lawmakers back again and again for as long as it takes to get the measure to his desk. He has followed through on the promise, bringing lawmakers in for two special sessions with the voucher-like program on the call. The House bill gives students about $10,500 in tax dollars each year for private school or other expenses, while a Senate proposal allocates $8,000 per student. Coaches said they are worried about the impacts the program would have on school funding, including for athletics like high school football. They also worried about players transferring to private schools and warned that private schools focused primarily on football — rather than a student’s holistic education — could open. But coaches in private schools doubted those fears would come to pass. “I think the huge concern from public schools is that they’re going to have a whole bunch of kids leave to go to private school,” said Coach Daniel Novakov, the head football coach at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas who has led the team to four back-to-back state TAPPS Division I championships. ”I just don’t see that being the case, but again, that’s one person’s opinion.” TEXAS PUBLIC SCHOOL COACHES WEIGH IN The Star-Telegram interviewed a half-dozen current and former coaches at public and private schools, primarily in North Texas. The less money schools have, the less money they have to put into athletics, the public school coaches said. When that happens, it will upset communities, school districts, parents, coaches and student athletes, said Joe Martin, the executive director of the Texas High School Coaches Association. High school football is part of the fabric of Texas, he said. “It’s part of who we are,” he said. “It’s celebrated in this state as being very successful and a lot of people like to follow it and like to have a piece of it and be a part of it.” The group represents high school coaches, primarily in public schools, and opposes vouchers because they take money out of public schools, Martin said. Buchanan, the former Aledo coach, predicted that athletics funding would be the first to go when it came time for districts to slash budgets because of loss of funds due to education savings accounts. That could mean the loss of personnel — coaches who in most cases are also teachers. Buchanan, who retired at the end of the 2022 school year, is known for his 25 years as the Bearcats’ head coach, but was also a biology teacher. It could also mean less money for equipment like helmets and costs passed onto students through things like participation fees. “There’s a lot of things that have to happen if your funding starts to drop,” he said, questioning how the state can afford to fund public schools while also paying for the voucher-like program. “They’re not going to give public schools as much money, if they’re going to give kids money to go to private schools,” Buchanan said. “They can’t. Unless they do what: Charge us more taxes. Somebody’s got to pay for it.” Arlington Martin Coach Chad Rives also opposed the idea of giving public dollars to private schools, as did former West Texas football coach John Parchman. Joseph Sam, the head coach at Arlington Bowie, expects to see some impact at the beginning, but thinks in the long term, the effects on high school football will be minimal. There will be some impact in terms of taxpayer dollars going to private schools and the ability to fully fund sports. “Budget wise, there will have to be more fundraising to make sure you can fund, maybe, some of the costs of taxpayer money going to vouchers,” he said. He doesn’t see many students opting to move into private schools. For one, tuition may not be affordable, even with the education savings account dollars, Sam said. Some parents may want to make the jump because the option is new, he said. “But I would put Texas public schools against any system in the country, personally, because outside of the COVID years, our success rate I think has been pretty high when it comes to servicing all students and not some students,” Sam said. Fears that vouchers and like-programs could negatively affect high school football aren’t new. In 2012, ahead of a possible voucher fight in the Texas Legislature, the Progress Texas PAC ran an ad featuring actors from the Texas-set television series “Friday Night Lights” warning of dangers to public school sports, according to the Texas Tribune. This year, the Moms Against Greg Abbott PAC has warned that vouchers could “turn off our Friday night lights.” A spokesperson for Abbott pushed back against claims that education savings accounts would harm high school football in a Thursday statement. Abbott has also attended tailgates for private schools promoting his “school choice” plan.
“Critics of school choice are falsely claiming that school choice will hurt high school football,” Press Secretary Andrew Andrew Mahaleris said. “These are the same tired arguments that this vocal minority made 20 years ago in opposition to charter schools, and high school football in Texas today is better than ever.” WOULD PLAYERS MOVE SCHOOLS? The Texas Private Schools Association doesn’t see education savings affecting the world of Texas high school football. The vast majority of private schools are focused on academics and view athletics as an all-participatory activity, said Laura Colangelo, the organization’s executive director. Parents are paying tuition to have their children participate in as many activities as possible, including sports. Many times, the football teams are not that good, she said. That’s not always the case — there are some teams that focus more on sports, but generally the focus is more holistic education, Colangelo said. “I don’t see this affecting high school football in any way,” she said.
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