A loooong hearing on school vouchers concludes predictably
Also, my cat peed in my office and I can't find where.
The hearing for Texas’ proposed school voucher program ended just before 9 p.m., after 100+ speakers gave public testimony. This voucher (or “school choice” or “parental freedom”) program would be the largest in the country if implemented and would cost $1 billion, but would only give 100,000 students across the state the money (well, some of the money) for private school out of 5+ million Texas students.
Before testimony began, the committee discussed the bill in some detail, with most of them congratulating each other on what a great bill it is. The two Democrats on the committee — Jose Menendez and Royce West — asked questions of the other members, but you can tell they’re kind of tired of this fight, particularly West. He has been on this committee for decades.
He pointed out that the history of school vouchers comes directly from America’s segregationist past, and some public speakers did the same.
Despite legal segregation being outlawed, Prince Edward County’s students still faced de facto segregation in the years following massive resistance and the decision to close the public schools. The County and state’s support of policies that facilitated white flight to private academies allowed for a disproportionate number of black and white students to be enrolled in the County’s schools compared to the County’s population. In the 1971-72 school year, only 5 percent of students in the County’s K-12 public schools were white.
Regardless, during the first hour of the hearing, West wearily lamented that this bill is going to pass, maybe he just meant out of committee. In the final count, I still think it will come down to Republican-on-Republican shenanigans.
A group of speakers early on were in support of the bill, most of them parents and teachers of autistic and special needs students who laid out the insufficiency of the public school system to deal with their particular educational needs.
On the other hand, this young speaker with cerebral palsy testified that private schools are not required to provide accessibility aids to disabled students:
And her mother added:
Texas Republicans are actually divided on this issue, which is why the fight to come is going to be weird and brutal. Many homeschool advocates don’t like the bill because — oh my god I’ve forgotten. Something about keeping the government out of their business of teaching their children religion 24/7. Here is a slightly more sensible position, but still kind of convoluted:
And though I LOVE this woman’s reactions, she is a reminder that everyone can see you reacting to crazy people on a livestream:
The only other speaker that really stood out to me was Pastor Jerry Davis of Kingwood, who surely has a pair of jeans bedazzled with “cool dude” on the butt.
"Why do we have Marxists? We failed to raise up our children! It's not intellectualism that will save our state,” says Pastor Jerry.
Finally, I think current UT student and future public school music teacher Dash Kostka did it best in speaking out against the bill:
The hearing ended around 9 p.m. with the committee predictably voting 9-2 to pass it to the full Senate.
Major props to vice-chair Donna Campbell who, despite wearing an absolutely hideous outfit, was gracious to everyone across the board. I can see why she is well liked by many.
Still. This combination of colors.
While the committee was meeting, a school voucher discussion was hosted by The Texan News, which is a right-wing propaganda publication that we somehow have to pretend is serious. Anyway, Briscoe Cain opened his dumb little mouth:
I need an award for watching this whole thing while sitting in my office where my elderly cat has apparently been secretly been peeing on things for a couple of days. I’ve laundered every item possible today. It still smells. Something is afoot. I put up with a lot, and now I’m going to get out of here and watch that SNL music documentary.
Check out more on this hearing from the Texas Tribune.
Donna Campbell’s outfit is making my dental fillings vibrate painfully. Also, her haircut is terrible.