Hundreds of parents, students and community members packed into the St. Mary Magdalen School gym on a warm Thursday evening to rally in support of school choice with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is on a tour of the state.
Students waved handmade signs scrawled with markers on brightly colored paper that said “We support school choice,” “We love our school,” and “Empowered Parents = Empowered Kids.”
Chants from a handful of protesters streamed into the auditorium, which had open doors. They also held signs saying “Texas can not afford vouchers,” and “Charters are bad, Vouchers are worse.”
The governor was introduced by the Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, school officials and State Board of Education member L J Francis.
“He made several references to parental responsibility … to school choice,” Abbott said of the archbishop’s comments. “What parental responsibility means is that mom and dad are in charge.”
Abbott’s visit is part of his ongoing efforts to support school choice and give parents more control over their children’s education. The tour, which has included stops in Amarillo, Houston and Tyler, among other cities, comes as multiple bills make their way through the two chambers of the Texas Legislature. Senate Bill 8 passed mostly among party lines last week, although the House passed an amendment that would bar public funding for private schools.
That didn’t deter Abbott. Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott, told the Dallas Morning News after the vote that the plan was still on the agenda.
“The Herrero amendment received the least support ever,” she told the DMN in a written statement. “This vote shows the Legislature remains open to school choice.”
Abbott criticized public schools in his remarks, accusing them of indoctrinating students and straying from core curriculum.
He said public education has changed since he was in school, telling a story about a principal who left a school after seeing a history teacher telling her students to “disrespect the flag of the United States of America.”
“Many children today aren’t educated like you and I were,” he said. “We will not use your taxpayer dollars to teach our kids to hate the United States of America. We are in Military City USA.”
To cheers and jeers, he said the Pledge of Allegiance isn’t being recited daily at all public schools.
“The one thing they must learn is why the United States of America became the greatest country in the history of the world,” he said.
Among the protesters was Carmen Merrill, the mother of a child who is about to enter kindergarten.
“(The protest) is a coordinated effort between all the groups that care about what’s going on in our public schools,” she said.
Another protester, Sonia Cumpian, 49, doesn’t have any children, but was the product of public schools. She said small towns like the one she grew up in would be hurt the most by school choice policies.
“I believe in public education,” she said. “I’d rather my money go to Neiman Marcus than to private school.”
The demonstration was far outnumbered by supporters, however.
Norma Rodriguez and her daughter, Brigid, who showed up early to the event Thursday, didn’t know that the governor would be at the event until last night, she said, adding that she was excited to hear what he had to say.
Brigid is part of the St. Mary Magdalen School choir, which performed as part of the event.
Rodriguez said she supported the idea of school choice, or using public funds for private schools, since she has struggled to pay for all the expenses that go into a Catholic education, including about $500 a month on tuition alone, with more on uniforms and supplies. She works at USAA and is on a single income since her husband is disabled, she said.
“She loves it here. She doesn’t want to leave,” she said of her daughter. “But it’s tight.”
The event was moved from Holy Cross to St. Mary Magdalen School at the last minute due to an increase in interest, according to the Parent Empowerment Coalition, which sponsored the event.
Holy Cross has a history with the school choice debate. The Catholic school benefited from a privately funded voucher experiment called the CEO Horizon Scholarship that was offered to Edgewood Independent School District students from 1998-2007.
While a push for publicly funded vouchers didn’t pass at the time, supporters of the policies are more hopeful this year with Abbott putting all of his support behind the measures, and some polling suggesting growing public support.
Jennifer Carr Allmon, the executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, testified in support of one of the voucher-like bills during a House Public Education Committee hearing Tuesday.
“We estimate that 90% of our schools will participate and we have the capacity to add around 20,000 students in the Catholic schools in Texas,” she said. “There’s 100,000 open seats in private schools throughout Texas today.”
Allmon also said that the majority of Catholic schools provide special education services, with special education students making up 11% to 12% of the entire student body. Lack of access to school choices for students with special needs is a concern that has been brought up regularly by voucher opponents.
During the event Thursday, Abbott said he heard from a mother who couldn’t get the special needs of her child met by the public school district, promising her that he would pass school choice legislation for her.
“No one will fight for my child the way I will,” he quoted her as saying.
Public school leaders have mostly spoken out against possible school choice bills in statements and legislative agendas, arguing that they would undermine the public school system.
Former Northside Independent School District Superintendent Brian Woods, who serves as the president of the Texas School Alliance, proposed requiring private schools that receive vouchers to meet the same requirements as public schools during testimony before the same committee as Allmon on Tuesday.
Those requirements include state safety standards, open meetings act and public information act requirements, special education evaluation and services and standardized testing, among others.
Rolando Ramirez, the superintendent of the Southside Independent School District, told The Report in February that he is all for competition, but not in the form of vouchers.
“We’re for parent choice, and we’re absolutely in agreement as far as the competition and making sure that each school district does their part and is competitive with any other school, public or charter,” he said. “But I think that the money should stay here at the districts.”
Abbott said public schools could get more funding and school choice can both be achieved.
“We can have alternative schools the children go to, and at the same time provide more money than ever before for public education in the Lone Star State.”
The governor ended the speech by giving parents a call to action.
“Do you know whose voice really matters? Yours,” he said. “Call your state representative and let them know that you stand with school choice in the great state of Texas.”
