Expect to see some form of vouchers-lite come out of the Texas Education Agency in the next couple of weeks.

Education Commissioner Robert Scott is expected to use his administrative powers to create a grant program to recover high school dropouts. Public and private schools likely would be given a per-student reimbursement for recovering the students.

Scott has argued such a program should not be deemed a voucher, per se, but talk is that it will be close enough to a voucher to please multimillionaire Jim Leininger, who has poured $8 million of his own money into recent elections in order to get vouchers passed.

Local education groups promise a courthouse brawl if TEA bypasses the Legislature to approve any program that might open the door on vouchers.

This article appears in March 14 • 2008.

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