I’m a proud product of Texas public schools. I’m the successful attorney that I am today because of the many teachers and professors who poured their hearts and knowledge into me. I’m also a former teacher and I understand the challenges and rewards our Texas teachers experience day in and day out.

Our Texas public schools are molding our next generation. Ninety-five percent of the youth in McLennan County are educated in our public schools. Yet Texas, with all its great wealth and prosperity, ranks 45th in the nation in school funding and teacher pay. We must fully fund our Texas public schools so they can attract great teachers.  We need to give our current teachers and other school employees a much needed raise, we need to supply the funds so that our schools can purchase the equipment and technology they need, we need to dramatically improve our special education in public schools that are virtually the only place they can receive appropriate education,  plus so much more. Our children are relying on us to get this right and we cannot let them down.

 

Right now, the Texas legislature funds only $6,160 per year, per student that attends a Texas public school.  This amount has not been increased since 2019 which is devastating considering the effects of inflation in the past five years. The vast majority of our Texas public schools are in a budget deficient and are having to dip into emergency funds just to keep their doors open.   We also fund our public schools each day on attendance, not enrollment, which also penalizes our Texas public schools.  Our schools have to be prepared every day to educate every child that is enrolled, not just those who attend, and so this must change.  Finally the STAR test and its punitive grading system hurt school districts, and surrounding property owners, by unfairly grading a school on a standardized test given each year.    We must help our public schools with much needed reforms in this area to give the future generation a great education which is so vital for the continued prosperity of our community and state. 

School vouchers will de-fund our already underfunded public schools and push them deeper into crisis management forcing them to cut more staff and programs from schools. Other states that have adopted voucher systems have shown that the vast majority of these tax dollars go to reduce private school tuition for students who already attend private schools. In Arizona,  a voucher bill was passed and now the state is literally in a financial crisis because of the cost of the voucher system .   We cannot take funds away from our public schools and school teachers when they are already hurting and struggling to meet our children’s needs and give those funds to children who are already attending private school. 

As your representative, I will author and vote for legislation that supports our public schools, students and teachers. I will fight to fund our schools and provide our teachers and staff with a permanent pay raise. I believe there are real, common sense solutions that can solve this issue and I will be a staunch advocate for our public schools.