Publish Date: April 23, 2025 11:25 am Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, April 18, 2025
Can We Talk About Real Solutions?
There is no shortage of news out of the Legislature this week, and we will break down all that public school employees and parents need to know about this week’s votes on public school funding and private school vouchers.
But we want to take a moment to talk about real solutions for our public schools before we get into what the Legislature has and hasn’t done.
This week, our San Antonio Alliance members delivered over 1,500 signatures from San Antonio ISD employees on ourEducator’s Bill of Rights. They spoke to their board members about the need – at both local and state levels – to prioritize more teacher planning time, mental health supports for staff and students, smaller class sizes, compensation, and full staffing.
“This is why we are organizing around the Educator Bill of Rights, not as a slogan, but as a vision for the schools our students deserve,” said Zuriel Morales, a science teacher, during the meeting. “Every educator who signs on is saying, ‘We want to stay in this profession. We want to serve our students. But we need your partnership, your leadership, and your actions to do that.’”
That’s the spirit we bring to the rest of this legislative session. There are 70 bills filed to support our Educator’s Bill of Rights; we want a committee hearing for every one of them.
Under normal circumstances, the Texas Legislature is a wild and weird place. But ‘Private School Voucher Day’ at the Texas Capitol truly took the cake, from far-right conservatives offering amendments that would have increased the basic allotment by more than $1,000 to one Democrat arguing against transparency and accountability for charter schools.
President Trump himself entered the conversation with a wild phone call to Texas House Republicans demanding they pass Gov. Greg Abbott’s voucher scam. And Rep. Gene Wu tried to rename the voucher bill the ‘SCAM Act: Siphoning Classroom Assets for Millionaires Act,’ for which we applaud his chutzpah.
By 2 a.m. Thursday morning, the House had passed a school funding bill and Abbott’s long-awaited private school voucher. Yesterday was far from a banner day for public education, but there were glimmers of good news, including our first Educator’s Bill of Rights victory!
This week, the House Higher Education Committee heard more bills aimed at addressing health care workforce shortages by incentivizing students and funding health institutions.
While the House committee continues its important work to support our higher education institutions, the Senate continued its rampage against academic freedom.
Eagle-eyed Hotline readers will wonder why we are jumping straight to a recap of the State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting without ever previewing the agenda. This is because without notice, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) ended a years-long practice of hosting an in-person meeting with stakeholders to preview the agenda and ask questions about the items the board is set to consider.
Every year, families from all over Houston gather for the annual art car parade. This year, public education advocates with Houston Stitching Together and Community Voices for Public Education, along with Houston Federation of Teachers members, crocheted a car in protest of the state takeover of Houston ISD. The display featured a life-size puppet of state-appointed HISD Superintendent Mike Miles and signs criticizing the New Education System for limiting teacher autonomy and removing books from the district curriculum.
Over 100 advocates — as young as 4 years old — contributed to the car’s crochet art, and at least 40 students, teachers, and parents walked in the parade.
Our union is continuously monitoring developments with the Department of Education and proposed Trump Administration changes to how federal education funding and services are delivered to states.
Education news from around the state and nation that’s worth your time.
📖 Can Texas retain and train more teachers? In this week’s episode of the TribCast, Matthew and Eleanor ask the question: Are Texas teachers OK? (The Texas Tribune, April 15)
