Listen to Every Texan Talks Podcast on Vouchers—that will drain public schools of resources and rob us of democracy

Friends:

Here is a great way to keep up to date on key policy agendas like school vouchers and school finance taking place right now in the 88th (2023) Texas Legislative Session. You can listen online at spotify.com. Regarding vouchers, just know that when you hear "Parent Empowerment Fund," this is really about most parents' disempowerment, as expressed by Jaime Puente at Every Texan.

This is not the time to stand on the sidelines. Everybody must get involved: 

• For example, go to the Capitol and visit your state representatives or their staff and let them know how you feel about school vouchers, school funding and other matters of import.

Listen, as well to last week's March 14th virtual Town Hall discussion by the Texas Legislative Education Equity Coalition (TLEEC) on the negative impacts of vouchers that you can listen to at TLEEC's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TxTLEEC

Listen to podcast episode here

March 3—We're hearing a lot of talk about protecting parents, but who's watching out for our students? One of the Governor’s top priorities is vouchers, or educational savings accounts, and he's hit the road to tout his plan. With the conversation gaining steam at the Capitol, this week Chandra Villanueva and Jaime Puente join Marisa Bono to dig into how the plan to use taxpayer-funded vouchers to send children to private schools is a school funding trojan horse and a serious threat to our students and future workforce.

Guests: school funding expert and Every Texan Director of Policy & Advocacy Chandra Villanueva, Every Texan Senior Policy Analyst Jaime Puente

Host: Marisa Bono, Every Texan CEO

IDRA has an infographic on reasons vouchers are harmful to students: https://idra.news/5ReasonsVouchersHurt

Vouchers amount to nothing short of school privatization and the destruction of public education and the Deweyan ideal of our nation's classrooms as laboratories for democracy. 

We're all paying our taxes right now. It's not appropriate or acceptable for vouchers rely on our hard-earned taxpayer dollars to help subsidize wealthy parents to send their children to private schools—that will only lead to ever-greater segregation. Recommended pertinent reading: "Vouchers: The 'Lost Cause' Fight of Our Generation" by Jaime Puente

All of the voucher bills are silent on assessment, by the way. So it's high-stakes testing and high-stakes accountability for the public schools and not for the voucher-subsidized private schools. This speaks volumes, including how immensely hypocritical this is.

The hearing on vouchers takes place this Wednesday at the Texas State Capitol at 8AM. It'll be a long day so pack a meal or two and bring water. You may need to layer, too, as the building can get cold.

The public needs to show up and support public education. You could use this infographic and your own personal experience as the basis for your testimony.

-Angela Valenzuela