Topic: Vouchers

Write your members of Congress and urge them to oppose this voucher scheme

Publish Date: May 2, 2018

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is at it again. Along with her friends from the Heritage Foundation and Republicans in Congress, she’s trying to push her failed voucher scheme on military families. These voucher proponents are leading an effort to create “education savings accounts”—otherwise known as private school vouchers—for military-connected students. Bills to accomplish this have been introduced in...

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Parents want well-funded neighborhood schools, not diversion of dollars to charters and vouchers

Publish Date: September 12, 2017

In a national Hart Research poll released today by the American Federation of Teachers, three in four public school parents say the public schools their children attend provide them with an excellent or good education. Some 79 percent of parents are satisfied with their children’s public schools when it comes to helping their children achieve their full potential, according to...

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Senate panel rejects Trump’s blueprint for cuts, vouchers

Publish Date: September 11, 2017

Our counterparts on the national AFT communications and legislative teams are keeping careful track of developments in Congress affecting funding for education. School districts in Texas and across the United States depend on federal funding for a significant part of their budgets. This year the flow of federal aid has been threatened by budget proposals from the Trump administration to...

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Recapping the special session, part one

Publish Date: August 23, 2017

We have much to be thankful for in relation to the July-August special session of the Texas Legislature—primarily for the fact that it is over. The session called by Gov. Greg Abbott that ran from July 18 through August 15 ended with Abbott and his sidekick Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick frustrated by their failure to achieve some of their top...

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Fight goes on for school funding, TRS retirees’ health-care cost relief

Publish Date: August 10, 2017

With six days left in the current 30-day special session of the Texas Legislature, not a single bill has been passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's ardent efforts to push through many hot-button proposals, including private-school vouchers and transgender-discrimination mandates. Still alive in the special session are important school-funding and TRS-Care cost-relief measures. You...

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Fight goes on for school funding, TRS retirees’ health-care cost relief

Publish Date: August 10, 2017

With six days left in the current 30-day special session of the Texas Legislature, not a single bill has been passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, despite Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's ardent efforts to push through many hot-button proposals, including private-school vouchers and transgender-discrimination mandates. Still alive in the special session are important school-funding and TRS-Care cost-relief measures. You...

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House action: clean sweep for school funding; committee rejects vouchers

Publish Date: August 4, 2017

It was a clean sweep in the Texas House today for three key bills on school funding: HB 21 to increase school aid; HB 30 to pay for the increase; and HB 23 to provide for autism grants within the public schools. All passed easily on second reading, with the first two garnering 131 and 130 votes respectively and the...

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House action: clean sweep for school funding; committee rejects vouchers

Publish Date: August 4, 2017

It was a clean sweep in the Texas House today for three key bills on school funding: HB 21 to increase school aid; HB 30 to pay for the increase; and HB 23 to provide for autism grants within the public schools. All passed easily on second reading, with the first two garnering 131 and 130 votes respectively and the...

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