Texas school leaders band together to call for lawmakers to fully fund public education
DALLAS - The Texas Education Conference is the largest annual gathering of school superintendents and school board trustees in the state.
School leaders from large and rural school districts came together in Downtown Dallas to demand state lawmakers fully fund public education.
"Having them come together should send a very powerful united message that Texas stands firmly behind its public schools," said Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde.
Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, public school leaders from across the state are calling on the state legislature to fully fund public education.
"Nothing is more fundamental to making every child's potential a reality than strong public schools for all children," said Kelley Thomas with the Texas PTA.
The show of solidarity comes ahead of another special session expected to be called by Gov. Greg Abbott in order to pass one of his priorities ‘school choice’ or school vouchers, depending on who you talk to about the hot-button issue.
"Our state leaders are considering siphoning even more funds away from our beloved public schools to subsidize the private school tuition of the privileged few, and we know that's just plain wrong," said Whitehouse ISD Superintendent Chris Moran.
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Moran’s rural district, located just east of Tyler, has just 5,000 students. He added there are very few private schools in the area. That reality has kept many rural Republican state lawmakers from supporting Abbott's plan.
"Public schools serve all children. They're paid for by all taxpayers," Moran said.
No matter the size of the public school district, superintendents appear to be struggling with similar problems of teacher retention and massive budget deficits.
Dallas ISD recently passed a $186 million stopgap to give just modest salary increases.
"That is not sustainable. There's only so much in a savings account," Elizalde said.
And then there's the added expense of hiring armed security guards at every public school as mandated by the state legislature this past session, but districts are provided very little funding to do so.
Crowley ISD has spent $3 million on armed security alone.
"We created deficit budgets locally while the state has this surplus," said Crowley ISD Superintendent Michael McFarland. "So it really speaks volumes for what's important."
Meanwhile, Gov. Abbott has declared Sunday, October 15 as ‘School Choice Sunday.’ He's calling on pastors to support the legislation during worship services.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas is among some of the influential leaders to say he will do just that.
A date for the upcoming special session has not yet been set.