David Guenthner of Texas Public Policy Foundation Says School Choice Will be Major Issue in Texas Legislative Session [AUDIO]

On the Thursday edition of The Chad Hasty Show, David Guenthner of the Texas Public Policy Foundation talked with Chad Hasty about some of the big issues that will be brought up in the Texas legislative session.

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Education will be one of the major points of discussion in the 83rd Texas Legislative Session, particularly the issue of school choice. Guenthner said that, while not all public schools are bad, there are more than a few problematic school districts in the state. He added that not all of those districts allow parents to move their children to different schools as easily as they can in Lubbock.

“When you’ve got a basically captive market, effectively a monopoly as you have in Texas, people who benefit from that are not inclined to give that up. Now, that’s not to say that all public schools are terrible. I think you look at the results, Texas compared to the rest of the country, the student results are not nearly as bad as a lot of the national surveys portray. Our schools do a decent job of educating our kids for the most part.”

Guenthner said another major issues will be the budget, which so far has been very conservative. However, he said the real challenge will be deciding what to do with the nearly $5 billion that has not been appropriated yet. Other issues Guenthner said he would like to see discussed include health care, energy economy and keeping taxes low in Texas.

For more information on the Texas Public Policy Foundation, visit their website at texaspolicy.com.