SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Legislature will begin a 3rd special session on Monday. At the heart of the agenda will be school choice. We have brought you several stories with voices speaking out against school choice, now hear from some who say it's a good idea.
"Families should have access to decide what is best for their students, and it shouldn't be that the school districts get to decide that this is how we do education," Valeria Gurr, Founder of La Federacion Para Los Ninos said.
Gurr says the Texas school system shouldn't be a one size fit's all system. Gurr says she has seen first hand how children of color living in low income areas, and those with disabilities have been left behind.
"Hispanic kids and African-American kids are behind as much as 2 years in math and reading," Gurr said.
Opponents to school choice say it can hurt the public school system, by taking away money from struggling schools.
"I understand the opposition of being afraid to bring a school choice, because it brings competition to them, but I do believe that competition is a good thing," Gurr said.
Ezzard Castillo, CEO with River City Christian School says every student has different needs, and school choice will empower parents to be more involved in their child's education and hold schools accountable.
"I'm going to make sure that if you are teaching my child that I'm getting the best bang for my buck, and if your not then, I'm going to take my child to where they need to go," Castillo said.
Gurr agrees with Castillo and believes school choice will bring opportunities to kids who have been left behind by the inequalities created by the public school system.
"When the system is not setup for success and when it doesn't recognize that it is unequal for communities, then what we're doing is just creating gaps that already exist in our communities and just increasing them," Gurr said.
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