The first anniversary of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead, is in two months. School authorities have determined that the academic year will end before the scheduled June 1^st date so that students will not have to relive the trauma that they experienced on May 24, 2022.

The children will probably ‘relive’ the trauma of that day for a long time, and Texas governor Greg Abbott has not helped the healing process. Instead of taking this awful opportunity to effect serious change in the state’s gun laws, Abbott has spent the year decimating an already inadequate school system that was further weakened by the pandemic.

We know about the book bans, the attack against ‘woke’ culture and CRT (without an adequate grasp of either), and the assault on LGBTQ+ and trans students’ rights.  Grooming his public for an as of yet undeclared bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, or at least to be Ron DeSantis’s running mate, Abbott is campaigning under the banner that parents “deserve the freedom to choose the education that’s best for their child.”

Of course they do. But not at the expense of my child’s education. Parents who do not want their children to read ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ or ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ can opt out of those discussions and choose study hall instead. They can choose to send their children to free charter schools or transfer schools within or outside of their district. They can choose to homeschool their children.  Pity the lost opportunity to read great books. Nonetheless, those parents get what they want for their children, and I get what I want for mine.

One would think, wouldn’t one . . .? But this is Texas.

And in Texas, the ‘freedom to choose’ describes programs that give parents taxpayer money to send their kids to schools outside of the state’s public education system if they feel that public schools are pursuing a liberal agenda. “Parents are angry today about social agendas being pushed on our kids in our schools in Texas and that is unacceptable,” Abbott said. “Schools are for education, not indoctrination.”

Apparently, unpleasant truths about our nation’s history and identity serve as ‘indoctrination’ not ‘education’. For Abbott Learning to critically analyze information and deduce informed conclusions is ‘indoctrination’ not ‘education’. Reading diverse texts that expose and examine the worst and the best in humanity is ‘indoctrination’ not ‘education’.

Was Anne Frank’s conclusion wrong?  “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Texas schoolchildren will never know.

Abbott’s plan would divert taxpayer dollars from public schools. Even though he brags that “[a]s governor, I approved more funding for public schools than any other governor in the history of our state,” at $10,314 per child, Texas currently ranks 38^th in student spending. In addition, Texas is the 10^th least educated state in the Union. The criteria for this distinction include graduation rates, drop-out rates, math and reading scores, SAT and ACT scores, pupil-teacher ratios, and the percentage of licensed and certified teachers in the classroom. What happens to students who drop out and do not graduate? What constitutes an optimal number of students in a class for learning to happen?  Who, exactly, is teaching if people with questionable credentials stand before our children?

Given the lax gun laws in this state, our rank in school safety is not reassuring.

Proponents of Abbott’s plan argue failing public schools will improve if they face private competition and that parents should be able to have the final say in where their children are educated.

Besides the obvious opposition to tax dollars being used for private schools, critics argue that much-needed funding will be diverted from already under-funded public schools and drops in enrollment will result in less funding per student. With losses equal to $10,314 per student who leaves, how, exactly, will public schools improve? Moreover, private schools are “not held to the same standards as public schools” and “are not accountable to taxpayers or required to give parents access to curriculum, instructional materials, and library books.” The irony of this last should not be lost on parents who demand more transparency regarding their children’s education.

Nor should it be lost on voters that Abbott repeated his plan for these education savings accounts in a speech at Annapolis Christian Academy in January. For such a staunch defender of the second amendment, Abbott seems to have forgotten the first, which guarantees free speech, free press, free assembly, and free exercise of religion with “no establishment thereof.”

Parents should be involved in their children’s education. Their children. But if they choose a private school – especially a religious school – they should pay for it themselves.