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Longview ISD superintendent speaks on opposition to school vouchers

Longview ISD Superintendent Dr. James Wilcox said he would ask the governor to look at what's best for the majority of Texans.

LONGVIEW, Texas — The Longview ISD Board of Trustees passed a resolution April 10 against the use of school vouchers and other programs that the district said would reduce public education funding.

Longview ISD Superintendent Dr. James Wilcox said the governor's plan would take money from public schools and instead funnel it to private schools -- one of the main reasons the district passed the resolution. 

Gov. Greg Abbott visited Tyler on March 9 to speak at what he called a "Parent Empowerment Event" at Grace Community School. 

"My elementary school years were in Longview, Texas," Abbott said. 

Now his hometown school is opposing his plan to create an education savings account program. It's designed to help families who want to send their kids to private. 

"Every dollar that we take away from public schools hurts the future of Texas. We can’t afford one child leave (the) Texas school without an appropriate education," Wilcox said. 

Gov. Abbott touted his plan for school vouchers during his visit to Tyler.

"We can have it both ways, we can both improve public education while at the very same time empowering our parents," Abbott said. 

Wilcox said the voucher programs isn’t empowering parents, rather it’s empowering private schools.

"They increase private school choice. Private schools only take who they want to, public schools take everyone," Wilcox said. 

When CBS19 asked Wilcox if he had a message to the governor, Wilcox said he would ask the governor to look at what's best for the majority of Texans. 

"I appreciate the governor; I respect the governor a great deal. I would just ask him to let our local representative that are locally elected here, (to) make the decision for the local district on what they want to do and how they want to do it," Wilcox said.

Parent Elisa Berry’s children attend Longview Christian School.

"We love the smaller class sizes and the teachers who care about the kids and care about their character and moral development as well," Berry said. 

She said she sees both sides of the issue.

"I know there’s a lot of families who would like to send their kids to private school but they can’t afford it, and I think that the voucher program would help that. But I see both sides of the picture," Wilcox said. 

A poll that was conducted last year by the Dallas Morning News and UT Tyler suggests a little over half, 54%, of Texans are in support of using state funding so parents can send their children to private school.

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