Opinion: Vouchers’ Ripple Effect – How They Threaten Texas’ Teacher Retirement System

I am strongly opposed to taking public tax dollars and spending them on private school tuition. In addition to pulling much needed funding away from the schools which serve over 90% of our students, there are other potential pitfalls.

Vouchers could put our teachers' retirement funds in jeopardy.

Gov. Greg Abbott has called a third special session, which began on October 9. Throughout the 88th legislative session and during the interim, Gov. Abbott has pushed a plan for public school vouchers, which the Texas House opposed. If passed, the funds being moved from public schools to private would be "handled" by private fund management organizations.

Vouchers are undoubtedly bad for public schools, but they're also bad for retired teachers. The shift in resources from public schools will lead to fewer public school teachers, meaning fewer folks paying into Texas' Teacher Retirement System. If the decline in the teacher workforce is substantial and the number of active teachers paying into TRS dwindles, we risk a systematic failure of our Teacher Retirement System – with vouchers to blame.

TRS provides a sturdy foundation for our teachers' retirement years. Now is not the time to put unneeded pressure on a system that 340,000 active public school teachers are counting on. Instead, now is the time to bolster TRS for those teachers, ensuring more regular cost of living adjustments to keep up with inflation and ever increasing costs for health care.

Voucher schemes won't just impact retired teachers. Vouchers jeopardize the retirement funds of staff, school counselors, principals, and countless other public school educators. Every employee at public colleges, from Texas State to Prairie View A&M, pays into TRS. Nearly every Texan can point to one of the 1.9 million active and retired Texas educators and name someone who made a positive difference in their life. I certainly can. Whether it was last year or 20 years ago, that educator did their job, uplifted us, and improved our lives. They deserve the ability to retire with dignity.

Teachers are the backbones of our communities, molding the futures of our children, our nieces, our nephews, our grandchildren. Texas teachers deserve a comfortable retirement. Moreover, they deserve the peace of mind that their retirement fund is safe. Vouchers jeopardize that.

Stand with me and contact your legislator and ask your friends and family to contact their legislators. Tell them that you're opposed to vouchers under any name. Tell them that you know what vouchers can do to our students and our retired teachers. I'm going to fight, I need you to join me.

Vikki Goodwin is serving her third term representing Texas House District 47 in western Travis County. In the 88th session, she was successful in passing a number of bills that serve her district and the state. To address safety issues, she passed Cati’s Act, which is a drowning prevention law, and the Natalia Cox Act, which is a violence prevention law. She was a co-author on a bill to increase state employee salaries and to provide a cost of living increase to retired teachers.