Last week in Austin, over a dozen Local Progress Texas (LPTX) members and several partners came together for the 89th Texas Legislative Session to fight for Texas students, immigrants, families, and workers; and to vocalize their concerns about the slew of harmful bills moving through the legislature.
The decisions made in the State’s Capitol every two years weigh heavily on our localities and carry strong implications for our Local Progress members who serve back home. Our members, who represent hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of constituents, understand it is of the utmost importance that they exercise their voice at the Texas Capitol.
LPTX members held a joint press conference outside the Capitol with State Representative James Talarico and key education advocates Every Texan, Intercultural Development Research Association, and TX AFT to highlight the local opposition to private school vouchers across the state. This comes after 50 local elected officials statewide sent a letter to Texas State Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows and Texas State Chairman of House Education Committee Brad Buckley, and members of the Texas State Legislature urging them to oppose a statewide school voucher program, as created in SB2 / HB3. “We cannot stand by while ultra-wealthy out-of-staters try to tell us what Texans need, dismantle our public education system, & strip even more power away from our local communities across the state,” they said.
David Stout, El Paso County Commissioner and Organizing Committee Co-Chair said, “As local electeds, we cannot stand idly by as wealthy out-of-state billionaires funnel our public school dollars away from everyday Texans.”
State and local electeds warned that a statewide voucher program would siphon our taxpayer funds away from the public school system to fund what has proven to be a failed approach to ultimately privatizes K-12 education. With attacks on public education simultaneously coming from the federal and the state governments, it is imperative that Local Progress members mobilize their colleagues to defend free, high-quality public education as one of the last remaining guarantees from our federal and state governments.
Michael Valdez, Edgewood ISD Board Trustee added, “Over two decades ago, our school communities were tricked by vouchers. Proponents promoted vouchers to our families as an attempt to provide better, equal opportunities for low-income families; but as it turned out, they only created more inequality and impacted our schools in a real negative way.”
Rep. James Talarico, Texas House District 50 concluded, “They’ve already privatized our health care. They’ve already privatized our higher education. They’ve already privatized our child care. And now those things are no longer public goods. Those things are out of reach for most working people. As a product of Texas public schools and as a former public school teacher, I refuse to let that happen to public education in this state and in this country.”
Back inside the Capitol, members led over a dozen legislative meetings with key legislators to discuss key public education, immigrant justice, and housing bills, based on our ongoing collaboration with partners like ACLU of Texas, Texas Housers, and ILRC. It’s critical that while our representatives are at the Capitol, they see us and know that we see them – that the choices they make, and how they fight back against bad policies does not go unnoticed. Our members and partners told legislators that their communities are opposed to more harmful preemption that stifles local control, anti-immigrant policies that further divide us, and dangerous mass eviction bills that would increase homelessness across the state.
Additionally, some of our Organizing Committee members testified in key committee hearings to support harm reduction and oppose the criminalization of our immigrant communities. Our Co-chair, Dallas Councilmember Adam Bazaldua testified on the House Committee on Public Health to support the decriminalization of fentanyl testing strips. Co-chair David Stout testified on the House Committee on Homeland Security to oppose a bill that is attempting to reintroduce parts of the previous SB4, putting immigrant community members further at-risk of criminalization and harming communities.
All-in-all, our time together in Austin made one thing clear: Local Progress members are best positioned to uplift their constituents’ voices before a state legislature that can often be missing the everyday Texan perspective.
