Publish Date: February 16, 2025 12:27 pm Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, Feb. 14, 2025
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We’re just educators, standing front of a Legislature, asking it to fund us. As we’ve said, we’re ready to work with any lawmaker who’s willing to prioritize our public schools and everyone who works and learns inside of them.
Our members have told us what they need, and it’s an Educator’s Bill of Rights. But none of those essential rights – from competitive pay to safe classrooms – are possible without adequate state funding of public education.
We’re happy to hear legislators talking about the need to pay our teachers better. But what we want to see is real momentum not just for teacher pay raises, but for our K-12 support staff and our higher ed employees too. That starts with making up for years of underfunding our schools, and it ends if we spend $1 billion in taxpayer money to prop up a private school voucher program.
The 89th Texas Legislature is in full swing, and with it comes a new slate of committee assignments in the Texas House. These assignments are more than just titles—they will determine the fate of the Educator’s Bill of Rights and other critical education policies, including school finance, teacher and school staff pay, and the ever-looming threat of private school vouchers.
At Texas AFT, we fight for what our members care about, including fully funded public schools, fair wages for educators, and an end to political attacks on academic freedom. With House Bill 1 (the House’s proposed state budget) on the table and potential voucher bills still lurking, the members of the House Public Education and Higher Education Committees will play a key role in shaping the future of Texas schools.
Yesterday, Linda McMahon, former WWE executive and President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, faced the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing.
McMahon advocated dismantling the Department of Education, aligning with the administration’s push to return control to states. She emphasized that such a move would require congressional action and assured lawmakers and those watching that essential programs like Title I school funding, Pell Grants, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding would continue.
Photo Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
However, McMahon’s limited education experience and support for private school vouchers have raised concerns among educators. Critics worry that her nomination signals a move toward privatizing public education, which Texas AFT has previously released dossiers exposing the billionaires bankrolling school privatization.
Texas educators and students deserve classrooms free from political censorship, universities that protect academic freedom, and schools that foster open inquiry and debate. Yet, recent legislative attacks — through tenure rollbacks, bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in higher education, and curriculum restrictions — have weakened Texas public education and made it harder to recruit and retain top educators.
Now, lawmakers have introduced key bills to restore academic freedom, ensuring that teachers can teach, students can learn, and Texas universities can remain competitive.
In 2013, the Texas Legislature revamped Texas high school graduation requirements to the current Foundation High School Program. This new plan created multiple pathways to graduation and though it still emphasized college readiness, the new program also elevated career and technical education (CTE) as an equal pathway to postsecondary success. The FHSP allowed students to earn an endorsement across an array of career fields and since the fall of 2015, CTE has only grown in scope.
There are hundreds of middle and high school courses related to career and technical education. They range from agriculture to manufacturing, finance, information technology, and energy. Course content has been developed in partnership with business and industry experts and is aligned with academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions.
Organizing Texas: Growing Public School Power Together
Date: Thursday, Feb. 20
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Virtual
Now that we have the education part down, it’s time to Organize Texas. Our monthly organizing calls are for members (and potential members!) who are ready to dig in and grow Texas educators’ power. The next call is Feb. 20, where we’ll talk about the challenges we face in the Legislature and in our districts and the tried-and-true strategies and tactics that can help us overcome them. Register on Mobilize.
Education news from around the state and nation that’s worth your time.
📖 Texas Colleges Rolled Over for Anti-DEI Bill. Now They Face a Broader Attack. Since its passage, Senate Bill 17 has been used to purge university employees even after their reassignment, close vital student support services, pull university funding from student groups and bar faculty committees and mentorship networks. Eventually, some universities have interpreted SB17 to mean changing course titles and syllabi to remove references to “race,” “gender,” “class” and “equity.”(Truthout, Feb. 10)
📖Leander ISD to cut $17M from budget amid financial concerns. Leander ISD will make around $17 million in budget cuts to reduce its projected $34.4 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2025-26. Next school year, the district will cut about $12.8 million in positions across its campuses and $3 million in administrative positions at its central office, which it hopes to lose through natural attrition, Superintendent Bruce Gearing said. (Community Impact, Feb. 6)
📖 North Texas lawmaker files bill to abolish the Texas Education Agency. Following the federal government’s potential overhaul of the U.S. Department of Education, a Texas lawmaker is seeking to eliminate the Texas Education Agency and redistribute its authority to the State Board of Education. (CBS Texas, Feb. 12)
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