Editor’s Note: Good Faith Media is committed to strengthening faith and democracy, “protecting both and compromising neither.” A strong democracy depends on robust support for public schools. This week, we are highlighting that commitment with a series of articles focusing on the history and current state of the U.S. public school system.

I live in Waco, Texas, where I spend a ridiculous amount of time at a place we Texans love: Whataburger. If you order a small drink at Whataburger, the nice person behind the counter will hand you a 20-oz cup to fill up at the soda machine. 

I have filled up many, many, many of these cups. In addition to filling cups at Whataburger, I work in the afterschool program at a local elementary school.

A little over 98% of the students at my school are considered “economically disadvantaged.” According to the Texas Education Agency, my beautiful little school is a “failing” school. This judgment is based on the STAAR test, a big end-of-year standardized test kids in Texas public schools take to measure how well they master the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). 

I firmly believe my kids are just as smart, if not smarter, than those at other “successful” schools – but my kids generally do not pass the STAAR test. 

Some folks in Texas are working hard to pass a School Voucher bill through the Texas Legislature. This bill would allow parents in Texas to receive a voucher or “Education Savings Account” of up to $8,000 per year per child to be put toward the expenses of sending their children to private schools. 

Vouchers are being marketed to voters as a way to help low-income kids (like my kids) “escape failing schools” (like our school.) If we pass a voucher program, proponents argue, these kids will have the money they need to go to a “good” private school instead of being “trapped” in a “failing” public school.  

They say this will lead to more academic success and better lives for my kids. 

Setting aside for the moment the cold, hard fact that $8,000 is not enough to pay the tuition at any private school I can name in Waco, I don’t think School Vouchers are the magic wand being promised.

Here’s where my experience with 20 oz cups at Whataburger comes in. Imagine we have two 20 oz cups. Each cup represents a school-aged child. I’ll call them Andrea and Bella. A full cup represents success in formal education (the STAAR test).    

Andrea starts school with ten ounces in her cup.  Andrea’s school pours in another 10 ozs. “Voila!” Andrea finishes school with a full cup! Success!  Wow! What a great school!

Bella starts school with five ounces in her cup. Her school pours in another ten ounces. Oh no! 

Bella’s cup is not full! Failure! Bella’s school is failing her! 

The problem of “failing schools” is not necessarily that one school is better or worse than the other – the problem is that they are the same. They are each pouring in 10 ounces. If you have a school full of Bellas and define success as a full cup for each student, pouring out ten ounces per student will never get you to “success.” 

The Texas Education Agency publishes a nice chart every year that shows the correlation between the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (the Bellas) in a school district and their performance on the STAAR test. Guess what? 

The correlation is fairly direct. The more economically disadvantaged students in a school district, the worse that district performs on the STAAR test.  

It turns out that being “economically disadvantaged ” has disadvantages. You don’t have as many books in your home. 

Your mom is tired when she gets home from work and doesn’t get to play with you as much. You don’t get to go to a Mother’s Day out program where they read to you and play counting games with you.

It turns out that people who are better off financially start school with more in their “success at formal education” cups.  

Would a voucher that allows Bella to go to a private school give her a better chance at academic success? In general, probably not. 

Private schools don’t pour more into each student’s cup– in fact, they sometimes pour less. Private schools tend to perform better than public schools because their students generally start school with more in their cups. 

In “The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools,” Christopher and Sarah Lubienski share research showing that “after accounting for the greater advantages of students served in private schools, public school fourth and eighth graders’ mathematics achievement is higher, on average, than that of students in private schools.” In other words, when we account for the amount in the cup when a child comes to school, public schools do just as well or better at educating kids than private schools.

We have learned from the experiences of voucher programs in other states that vouchers don’t help economically disadvantaged kids very much. Better-off kids end up using them more. 

An op-ed in the Arizona Mirror from January 2024 reveals that “rather than democratizing education, Arizona’s school vouchers are subsidizing its most fortunate families, reinforcing existing disparities rather than mitigating them.” If we want the kids coming to school with 5 oz in their cups to end up with full cups, we will have to pour more into those cups.

We know some things that pour more into a kid’s cup— high-quality preschool programs, well-prepared, experienced teachers, restorative programs to help with behavioral challenges, and wrap-around services such as social workers who can help connect families to local resources.Private schools don’t provide most of these things, but we could provide them in public schools.

Private school vouchers are not the answer for most kids. We need to fund public schools.