Texas Freedom Network and its partner organizations are coordinating a “pep rally” at the Texas Capitol for 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, April 16, to “demonstrate strong community support for public schools” before the Texas House convenes and prepares to vote on legislation allowing public school funds to be used to pay for private school costs.
The rally will be held on the steps outside of the House Floor, located on the second floor of the Capitol, 1100 Congress Ave. Speakers will include Texas Freedom Network Executive Director — and parent — Felecia Martin, public school student Azeemah Sadiq and Laurie Solis, the parent of a public school student. Other speakers are not yet confirmed.
Senate Bill 2, approved in the Senate early during this legislative session, was voted out of committee in the House at the end of March. The measure would create what supporters call “education savings accounts” that would allow families to use taxpayer dollars to fund a child’s education at an accredited private school.
While supporters tout the vouchers as a way to help financially underprivileged children attend private schools they could not otherwise afford, opponents (including the Texas American Federation of Teachers) says a look at voucher programs in other states show that most of the funds go to pay tuition for students already attending private schools — in other words, children from wealthy families who can afford private schools anyway — and that vouchers would harm public schools by draining away much-needed funding.
According to a TFN press release, the rally was organized “to highlight the overwhelming community opposition to vouchers and support for public education, which serves 5.4 million Texas students.” The House vote is the last hurdle for the measure to clear before it can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to be signed into law.
A similar measure easily passed the Senate during the 2023 legislative session, but was soundly defeated in the House, with Democrats and many Republicans from rural districts — many of which districts have no private schools — voting it down. Opposition to the vouchers bill remained strong in 2023, even though Abbott forced three special sessions to try and force through what has been one of his pet initiatives.
This session, however, Abbott has deemed the vouchers bill an “emergency” measure, and — with many of the Republicans who opposed it last time having been “primaried” out of their seats, or at least out of their comfort zones, by candidates backed by Abbott — it looks to easily pass the House this time, despite overwhelming public disapproval.
— Tammye Nash