This past Monday, around 500 educators traveled from districts big and small across the state to urge lawmakers to pass our union’s Educator’s Bill of Rights, increase the basic allotment in the school finance bill, and stop pushing costly and unpopular private school voucher scams.
Over the course of a busy day – the first day of most of their Spring Breaks – educators engaged with lawmakers and spoke about the issues they see every single day at their neighborhood public schools. The day culminated in a rally on the South steps of the Capitol, where we heard firsthand the experience of Texas students and educators, including K-12 teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff, higher education employees, and retirees.
(If you think this event looks like something you want to be a part of, we’re heading back to the Capitol this coming Monday with even more of our members. Register online here to join us.)
Members Hear from Lawmakers, Education Policy Experts
We are a union of educators. Of course, we like to start our day by learning and getting our facts in order.
To start a busy day of advocacy for our public schools, Texas AFT members from across the state gathered at the First United Methodist Church, located across the street from the Texas Capitol, to hear from education policy experts and Texas lawmakers allied with our Educator’s Bill of Rights.
Our thanks go out to Dr. Josh Cowen, Sen. Roland Gutierrez, Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Donna Howard, Rep. Venton Jones, and Rep. James Talarico for joining us. The discussion covered a number of important topics.
On Vouchers
“When I talk about vouchers, I’ll tell you what I sometimes get from the other side. I’ll get something that says, ‘Well, what’s your solution?’ And my solution is this: Treat teachers right, like we’re supposed to. Pay them well, like we’re supposed to. Respect them as professionals, like we’re supposed to. Truly care about the kids that are in this room, like we’re supposed to.”
– Sen. Roland Gutierrez
“The first voucher bill was proposed in that Capitol in 1957, just three years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision came down from the Supreme Court. The first voucher scam was a deliberate attempt to resegregate our schools to allow white parents to take their children out of newly integrated public schools and send them to ‘whites only’ private schools. But the good news is that Texans came together to defeat that voucher scam in 1957, and we’ve defeated them in every decade since.”
– Rep. James Talarico
On Diversity in Higher Education
“I’ve been on [the] Appropriations [Committee] long enough to where I remember not too long ago, the chancellors and presidents coming before us with pride, talking about how they’ve become universities that had a higher population of students representing diverse communities. With pride! And we look at it with pride ourselves. This is a good thing! It’s reflecting the face of our state.”
– Rep. Donna Howard
On the Impact of Public Schools
“Public school teachers made my story as a state representative possible. It was a public school teacher that understood that because I’m a person with ADHD and dyslexia, that I needed just a little bit more help. It wasn’t in the classroom where she helped me; it was that extra time that my teacher took, literally, to work her second job as a waitress while she was tutoring me, sitting at the table. It was the sacrifices she made to buy school supplies and invest in those kids that have those problems.”
– Rep. Venton Jones
“We all know from personal experience – we’ve all had that first person in our family that went to college or the first person that went and got a better job. We know much education uplifts us. But you know what? There are people outside of this room who also know that – the same people that would walk into this room and turn their noses up at us.”
– Rep. Gene Wu
Texas AFT members met with their own state representatives and senators, both individually and in groups. These are photos of just a few of those visits (clockwise, starting top left): Socorro AFT with Sen. César Blanco; Northside AFT with Rep. Ray Lopez; Alief AFTSE with staff from Sen. Joan Huffman’s office; Houston Federation of Teacher President Jackie Anderson with Rep. Alma Allen; Alliance/AFT with staff from Rep. Jessica González’s office.
A Flurry of Visits with Representatives, Senators
Educators traveled to the Capitol because they’re tired, upset, and running out of time. After two years of tumult amid an existential funding crisis for Texas public schools, educators need lawmakers to adopt common-sense reforms to improve the learning environment. Texas AFT’s Educator’s Bill of Rights includes a defined workday, safe classrooms, smaller class sizes, fair wages, a reliable pension, and more. When educators’ working environments improve, so do their students’ learning environments.
Our K-12, higher ed, and retired members discussed these rights and their real-life experiences with the offices of their state representatives and senators. We are grateful for lawmakers and staff who took time to listen and to learn.
Critical to all the issues our members raised in their visits is a major boost to get the basic allotment–the state’s base per-student funding–to match inflation since the last funding increase in 2019.
Texas public schools need a $1,386 per-student increase, far beyond the $220 currently included in House Bill 2.
Educators also urged lawmakers to oppose private school vouchers, a distinct threat to public school funding and to the priorities in the Educator’s Bill of Rights. Vouchers would balloon in costs from year to year and raise property taxes, take taxpayer dollars from local neighborhood schools, devastate public school funding, and undermine any school funding boost or educator pay raise signed into law during this session.
Rallying for Public Schools Funded to Thrive
At a rally on the South steps of the Capitol, we passed the mic to the real experts on education: our students, teachers, paras, professors, and retired educators. What they said mattered, and you can watch the recording of their remarks on YouTube or Facebook.
But here are some of our key takeaways:
“When teachers are overworked and underpaid, it is harder for them to give us the individual attention we need. When classrooms are overcrowded, it is harder for us to learn and thrive. And when schools are undervalued, it is harder for us to dream big about our futures.”
– Alissa Sundrani, student organizer with Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT)
“I’ve heard a lot of talk about teacher pay raises from this Legislature this year. And believe me, I want one. But the proposals with the most support from leadership are insulting. They are either a few crumbs or tied to pay-for-performance metrics that huge numbers of Texas educators aren’t even eligible for. And most importantly, they don’t include the paraprofessionals and support staff who help us do our jobs every single day.”
– Charlie Banks, Cy-Fair ISD middle school ELAR teacher
“I am a full-time working person. I believe – and my union believes – that I have a right to that level of security, just like every Texas teacher, para, and staff member. I have a right to go to work every day and feel safe. The kids in my class have a right to the same thing.”
– Rosemary Palomino, Cy-Fair ISD middle school paraprofessional
“As faculty members, we achieve the highest level of distinction in our respective fields. We are experts in what we teach, and we should be trusted to handle decisions in curriculum and how our programs function. I know neuroanatomy and neurophysiology far better than Gov. Abbott or anyone who works in this building or, frankly, any university administrator.”
– Dr. DiAnna Hynds, biology professor and president of the Texas AAUP-AFT chapter at Texas Woman’s University
“Did you know that your favorite teacher that’s retired receives a pension of $2,294 a month? How could they pay for their groceries? How could they pay their mortgage? How could they pay for their health care? How can they pay for medications? How can they live a decent life with dignity? The answer is they can’t.”
– Rita Carden Runnels, retired teacher and chairperson of Texas AFT Retiree Plus
‘Whose Union? Our Union.’
In bringing Monday’s rally to a close, Texas AFT President Zeph Capo reminded all in attendance of a sobering and important fact: No one is coming to save us. It’s up to us to work together for thriving public schools, colleges, and universities for ourselves and our students.
And that starts by coming together as a union.
“You know, lawmakers in this building like to complain about ‘the teachers’ union’ doing this or ‘the teachers’ union’ doing that. But the message I want to remind each of you about and make clear to the people under that dome is this: you are your union,” Capo told attendees. “Your voice is our voice. Your priorities are our priorities. I hope y’all see that in the agenda we’ve shared with lawmakers today: our Educator’s Bill of Rights. Everything you’ve talked about in your local unions and on your campuses and with your colleagues is what built this agenda. And it’s worth fighting for, even when the odds are stacked against us.”
If we’re going to defeat vouchers and fully fund our schools and protect our right to teach the truth, we need everyone in the game. If you work in K-12 or higher education and haven’t yet joined our union, we invite you to do so with open arms. A special thank you to state representatives like Jolanda Jones, Ron Reynolds, Jon Rosenthal, and Aicha Davis for joining us! You can join Texas AFT online today.