Make it Matter Monday 3/10

Learn

Paul Colbert, former Pub Ed budget chair from 1985-1991, lays out the history of public education in this stunning testimony before the House Pub Ed committee hearing last Tuesday. Please take the time to watch this and then share with all your friends. 

Watch a Masterclass on school funding

Do

Leave a comment for the House Public Education committee members with your thoughts and concerns about school vouchers before the end of day on Tuesday. 880 people commented on the funding hearing. Let's see if we can double that!

Submit a comment on HB 3

Share

This is our first and biggest test of our voucher advocacy. We need over-the-top engagement the next few days. Please share our call to action with a link to this folder that includes graphics to share, background information on vouchers, asks, messaging, sample scripts, links to comment opportunities and policy maker contact info, and more. Please share this information using those resources in any way possible to everyone possible, especially people you know from outside of Austin. This is it, y'all! Now or never. 

Share Voucher Call-to-Action Resources

Spilling the Capitol Tea

House

The House met twice to discuss HB 2 last week. This is the school funding bill. It includes some good things, like an arts allotment, increases to the special ed and security allotments, and an increase to the teacher incentive allotment, but includes only $220 increase to the basic allotment. We need $1340 to come close to 2029 funding in real dollars. 

Tuesday was invited testimony only and included some great testimony from a number of superintendents, including our own AISD Superintendent Segura, who did a great job of explaining our struggles and answering follow-up questions. View his video here. View the entire hearing in the Capitol broadcast archives here (look for the Committees tab and scroll down to the right date then look for all the videos associated with that committee to find what you're looking for). 

Thursday was public testimony and a bunch of ACPTA advocates registered to testify. The timing didn't work out as most had to leave to pick up kids around the time we all got called to testify but several of us did, including two first-timers, which is badass. In fact, virtually all the testimony was really really good and new committee members were more impressive than I expected, asking some really good questions. I was quite happy with what I saw and heard. 

You can view all the testimony in the Capitol broadcast archives here. I think our testimonies were in the last 30 or 40 minutes or so of the second video for March 6, 2025. Here is the link to the written comments y'all, and angry folks from all over the state, submitted (thank you!). Enjoy!

After the second hearing, they chose to keep the bill in committee and work on it some more, which was not a surprise considering all the great feedback they received. We'll see when it pops back up again. 

Next week the House will meet on Tuesday to discuss HB 3, the voucher bill. More on that below. 

Senate

The Senate had a hearing on SB 10 and SB 11, which dealt with displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and prayer in school. SB 569, which is about virtual education, was thrown in the mix for fun. You can't read comments on the Senate side but here's the list of people who registered for the hearing. They all passed out of committee anyway and will probably be heard on the floor soon. 

They also heard SB260, which doubles the paltry amount our schools are given for the safety allotment. This bill moves it from $10 per student and $15,000 per campus to $20 per student and $30,000 per campus, basically doubling what we get now. Sounds great unless you know, which they do, that this only gets us to about a quarter of what it costs our districts to implement this mandate. It's expensive for our districts and we have to use money that should be going to educators and classroom support. Here's the fiscal note so you can see for yourself how much Texas says it's going to cost them and then keep in mind that our districts are probably going to be paying three times that amount to meet the requirements of the law. 

Next week the Senate will meet on Tuesday at 8am to hear a SB 568, relating to sped funding in public schools, SB 1447, which is about TEA's authority to ban cell phones in schools, and SB 24, relating to the inclusion of an understanding of communist regimes and ideologies in social studies curriculum, among others. 

Feel free to go down and register an opinion on any of these. You can also leave a written testimony (13 copies) or register for public testimony (2 minutes). 

House Pub Ed Committee Meeting - Tuesday, March 11, 20258 am, in Room JHR 140 (Reagan Office Building)

The committee will meet to hear invited and public testimony regarding HB 3, Buckley | et al., relating to the establishment of an education savings account program.

House Bill 3 is the largest and most expensive private school voucher bill ever proposed in the Texas House, diverting taxpayer dollars out of our public schools and into unaccountable private and religious schools. 

Notes about bill:

• Eligibility: Universal eligibility for every school-aged child and PreK-eligible child. HB 3 does not include an income cap, meaning millionaires and billionaires are eligible for voucher money. Voucher Amount: The voucher can be used for private school expenses OR high-quality PreK, though the PreK eligibility remains unclear in the bill text. All students: Eligible to receive 85% of the estimated statewide average state and local funding per student in ADA — $10,198 in 2026 and nearly $10,500 in 2027. Homeschoolers: Eligible to receive $2,000. Special Education Students: Eligible to receive their full public school entitlement amount, up to $30,000. Prioritization: Despite voucher proponents’ rhetoric, HB 3 does not prioritize students who are currently in public schools. Students who are already in private schools are equally eligible for this money. The bill includes a series of prioritization criteria, but if low-income students and students with disabilities (categories 1-3 below) do not apply for a voucher — or apply and are not granted admission into a private school — most of the voucher seats will go to wealthier families with kids already in private schools (category 4). Students with a disability AND who are members of a household at or below 500% of the federal poverty line (FPL) Students who are part of a household below 200% of the FPL Students who are part of a household above 200% and below 500% of the FPL Students who are part of a household at or above 500% of the FPL If a child ceases to use a voucher, then they are moved to the bottom of the waitlist if they wish to use a voucher againFor reference, currently, 500% of the FPL for a single parent with one child is $105,750 and 500% of the federal poverty line for a family of 6 is $215,750. Accountability: Participating students would be required to take either the state-required assessment or a nationally norm-referenced exam. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/20/texas-house-school-vouchers/

OUR ASK: DO NOT PASS HB 3 OUT OF COMMITTEE! FOCUS ON MAKING OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS WHOLE, INSTEAD.

CALL TO ACTION:

• Write a comment. This becomes a part of the public record and the more comments they hear from constituents, the better. Background, scripts, contact lists, and more can be found in our Call to Action folder. Share that link with your friends and family across Texas. It'll be open until the end of the hearing. 

• Call. It is still absolutely critical that we keep their phones ringing off the hook from Texas families who want our state to focus on supporting our public schools. You'll find their contact info in the same Call to Action folder.

• Show up. There will be an opportunity to testify but you don't have to testify if you show up. For those who are testifying, it's really helpful to have friendly spirits in the audience. It also helps for the reps to see a lot of faces in the audience throughout the day so they know we're paying attention. Wear your PTA or school shirt!

• Testify. This is our first chance to let them know how we feel about vouchers and share what we know about it's impacts to our friends and family in other states. Wear your PTA or school shirt!

If you are planning to join us at the Capitol, sign up for our Testimony Team Signal group to collaborate, prepare, and get real-time updates. This is the only way we'll be communicating with other advocates that day. 

Can't get to the Capitol? Watch the hearing here. It'll be available in the broadcast archives after the hearing ends. 

NOW is the time to show up, y'all. Advocacy looks like commenting, calling, sending emails, sharing this information, joining us at the Capitol for moral support, registering, or testifying. Do what you can!

PLAN YOUR DAY

There is no way to tell you when you will be called to testify but there are some general rules that might help you plan your day in my blog. You are welcome to come and go as your schedule permits. We know it's hard to get away for the whole day. Just do your best. 

This is the week we convince our representatives to hold HB 3 back in committee and focus on school funding instead. Let's do it!