State Sen. Brandon Creighton sought to combat anti-school choice “rhetoric” spread as the Texas Senate deliberated school choice.
The Conroe Republican—who chairs the Senate Committee on Education K-16 and filed the school choice measure, Senate Bill 2—made the remarks when fielding questions during Wednesday’s debate.
Senators voted 19-12, largely along party lines, to send the measure to the House on Wednesday.
“The narrative can be as much garbage and innuendo and subterfuge as it needs to be. But at the end of the day, Texas moms and dads and their families and students that need help the most are the advocates bringing this bill forward, and they will continue to be,” said Creighton.
Creighton was specifically rebutting a concern levied by State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) on taxpayer-funded lobbying after State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) took time on the floor to correct the record.
West had asked Creighton to amend his proposal to prohibit taxpayer-funded school choice lobbyists, a point that Middleton seized upon.
Middleton explained that taxpayer-funded lobbying using state appropriations is already prohibited under the Texas Government Code. While he filed separate legislation this session to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying through local property taxes, this would not affect the proposed state-operated school choice program.
State Sen. Bob Hall (R- Edgewood) slammed misinformation, saying it was “purposely put out by those who would be opposed to this, just because they don’t like it.”
He appeared to be referring to a graphic circulating on social media that shows public school per-pupil funding at around $6,500, in contrast to the proposed baseline of $10,000 per pupil in SB 2.
The claim is “way off,” explained Hall, “because, by any way you calculate it, when you look at the total taxpayer dollars that’s coming either from the federal government, from the state, or from local—that number is more like $16,000.”
Creighton agreed.
“That is correct. That argument and those charts circulating on social media were just manufactured to create division and chaos that hurts kids,” emphasized Creighton.
Sherry Sylvester, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former senior adviser to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, posted a different graphic Tuesday on X attempting to correct the record on per-pupil education funding.
Image credit: Texas Public Policy Foundation
The graphic dispels other accusations levied against private schools, including their supposed carte blanche admission standards and lack of standardized testing.
While private schools have more freedom to decide who attends, they establish their own admission standards and cannot discriminate based on race, color, or national origin.
Participating private schools must also be officially accredited and require students to complete the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam or another nationally recognized standardized test.
In addition, 92 percent of the school choice program funding goes directly to benefit students, whether it is used to cover tuition costs, travel costs, or learning materials. Meanwhile, TPPF estimates that only 40 percent of public school per-pupil funding goes toward classroom instruction.
Before the final vote, Creighton said he changed his closing speech to confront those who promoted false narratives about the measure.
“You hear comments and the rhetoric that we just heard [from Democrat lawmakers] that are the talking points of the American Federation of Teachers emailed straight from [AFT President] Randi Weingarten right out of Washington, D.C. Is that fair of me to say? Yeah. Because I can print them,” said Creighton. “It’s incredible.”
The lawmaker went on to explain how the legislation is primarily directed at students with disabilities and other needs, as 80 percent of the program is intended to accommodate children under those circumstances.
Houston-area dad Josh Posey told Texas Scorecard that he supports the school choice measure and was dismayed “that such a beneficial piece of legislation for our children is facing immense misinformation.”
“At this point, it’s not just misinformation—there are outright lies being spread to manipulate emotions and voters,” said Posey. “Sen. Creighton has addressed and dispelled every myth, both at the beginning of the education committee hearing and again on the Senate floor. He even removed redundant language from the bill that was being used to gaslight our fellow Texans despite that language already being codified elsewhere.”
“I would like to think that teacher unions and taxpayer-funded lobbyists … could at least read the bills before deciding to oppose them. Case in point—how many testimonies included ‘fully fund Texas public schools?’” he continued. “That’s not even in the bill.”
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
