Jennifer Lee and Kyev Tatum agree that Texas’ Black students do not receive the same academic support as their peers, that schools punish them unfairly and that recent state laws silence Black history and perspectives in the classroom.
But the two Black Texans sharply diverge on whether the state’s new voucher program will make education in Texas better or worse for students who look like them.
Lee feels confident that vouchers, which allow families to use public funds for private school and homeschooling costs, will allow the state to drain money from a predominantly Hispanic and Black public school student population while benefiting majority-white private schools and worsening academic outcomes. That’s what she sees in other states with vouchers, often referred to as “school choice.”
