To address the concerns expressed about Education Savings Accounts, I am writing this so folks can know exactly where I stand.
I believe there are a lot of great teachers and other folks within public education, and I believe the good and great ones do it out of love for others.
My concern is that one-third of the entire Texas budget goes to public education ($93 billion), and it keeps being repeated that schools need more money. I believe it is more likely that funds have been misallocated to heavy administrative pay and extracurricular activities. The funds should be spent on teacher pay, clean and safe buildings, and the basic curriculum like reading, writing, mathematics, history, civics, science, and vocation.
I am working on a constitutional amendment to correct where taxpayer money can be spent in public education.
Many parents like myself have grown worried about the trajectory schools are headed.
We had one of our kids in pub ed at the beginning of COVID, and the Superintendent couldn’t promise us that our kid would not be forced to wear a mask.
Shortly after we expressed our concerns, the schools mandated masks, and there was no way we were going to subject our kid to that level of tyranny. Unfortunately, almost no one in public education stood up to the abuse of power, and we decided our kids would no longer use the public school system. Leaders are supposed to stand up, not bow down.
Numerous parents felt the same way as we did, and they pulled their kids out of the schools.
I truly believe that if the schools had stood up against unconstitutional mandates and poor decisions by our government, the ESA discussion wouldn’t even exist right now. I also believe that if we didn’t have male teachers dressing up as women and blatantly inappropriate books in our libraries, we wouldn’t be discussing ESAs.
Much of the blame also goes to legislators of that time because they turned a blind eye to the abuse of power and didn’t stand up for us as citizens. I vowed to run against any person I could who did not stand up against the COVID mandates. Their lack of courage led to unconstitutional mandates, school closures, business failures, and generations of people being told to bow down to unconstitutional authority. Mental health issues skyrocketed while many leaders turned their backs on us. The damage done by teaching our kids that it is okay to bow down to corrupt authority will cause us problems for generations in this country.
I won my race, and I want to do whatever is within my power to stop that from ever happening again in a country that loves to express how free we are.
I campaigned to expand school choice and received several endorsements from Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. I must uphold my word. So far, polling has shown two-thirds support in rural districts, and 80 percent of the Republican primary voters said they support it on the ballot. Trump has consistently advocated for expanding school choice, and he won in Texas by a good margin.
I have made it clear to the folks writing the ESA bills that I will vote no if they put a bad bill in front of me, and there are legitimate concerns that are being discussed as it comes to the House.
The question we all need to be asking is what is best for the kids.
I also believe schools that create an environment where parents want their kids to be will not lose students.
I truly understand the concerns expressed against the ESAs, but I also understand that what we have isn’t working and there is plenty of blame to go around. I believe we need real reform, and we need those of us elected to stand up for it and against the tyranny that occurred during COVID.
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