This piece was originally published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority for the legislative session is to give families more freedom to choose the right school for their children. Abbott has called for lawmakers to establish education savings accounts to give parents direct control of their child’s share of school funding. Under the plan, parents would be allowed to use about $10,000 annually to pay for school tuition, tutoring or other education expenses.
For the first time in state history, all Texas parents may soon have the power to decide where their children go to school regardless of where they live. This means that busy parents will have a new important item on their 2023 to-do lists: searching for the best learning environment for their children.
The good news is that there’s already a free service that can help. In 2019, the Miles Foundation, a private charitable foundation in Fort Worth, approached the Lincoln Network looking for help to solve a problem experienced in their community. The Miles Foundation sought to help broaden awareness for the many parents and children, especially those coming from low-income areas or districts with failing schools, about the other free school options available to them, such as charter and magnet schools. The foundation believed that technology could help provide a solution.
