Pastors for Texas Children, a pro-public education group, is warning that the creation of a “parallel private system of education” funded with tax dollars — through vouchers or other schemes — would violate the Texas Constitution and harm the religious schools proponents of such a system want to fund. That warning came in a brief the group filed on Tuesday […]
Religious-righters are twisting and redefining “religious liberty” so much that the term itself is in danger of becoming almost meaningless. Fortunately, a growing number of mainstream religious leaders from around the state are calling out the nonsense. The latest battleground: public subsidies (such as vouchers) for religious schools. The rabidly anti-gay, religious-right group Houston Area Pastor Council, which also goes by […]
Today the Texas Senate mugged the state’s public schools and their millions of students by providing preliminary approval to a reckless private school voucher bill. But the debate revealed some dirty truths that voucher supporters would prefer folks not know about the bill. Senators gave approval to Senate Bill 4 on second reading. SB 4 would give tax credits to wealthy interests that provide […]
As the Texas Senate prepares to take up a tax-credit voucher scam — as early as Tuesday — check out this video from the Southern Education Foundation. The Foundation’s three-minute video explains how direct vouchers and tax-credit vouchers undermine public education as tax dollars are siphoned off to private and religious schools.
Call your senator TODAY in opposition to this reckless raid on funding for neighborhood public schools. Click here to find the name and phone number for your senator. Big moves behind the scenes tell us the Senate could take up a massive private school voucher bill this week. It’s critical that you call your senator […]
Our opposition to private school voucher schemes apparently angers “Linda,” who wrote us earlier today. We won’t publish her full name or email address — we’re polite that way. But here’s her email to us: You either have no kids in the Texas public school system or you are just stupid or a lib which is one […]
As the Senate Education Committee hears testimony on three reckless private school voucher bills, we just sent out the following press release: Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller today called proposed bills under consideration in the Senate Education Committee today reckless and even cynical schemes to shift funding from neighborhood public schools to private and […]
Powerful interests pushing private school voucher schemes in Texas are launching today what might be their strongest attack on neighborhood public schools in years. The Senate Education Committee is hearing public testimony on three proposed voucher bills — each one of which could end up draining billions of dollars from public education to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools. […]
On Wednesday anti-public education politicians rallied behind a proposed new voucher scheme to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars each year from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools in Texas. Those funding transfers would come on top of billions in funding cuts to public schools passed by the Legislature in 2011 — cuts lawmakers still haven’t fully restored. […]
It’s always good to see folks in responsible positions refuse to play games with far-right fanatics who substitute ignorant, facts-free ideology for honest research and expertise. So we enjoyed reading a particular section of state District Judge John Dietz’s opinion on Thursday that the public school finance system in Texas violates the state Constitution. The case is almost certainly […]
