Texas state lawmakers have gaveled in and started stepping to the tune of well-funded efforts to pass private school vouchers and undercut public schools. It’s a tired tune that state leaders sang throughout 2023’s lengthy legislative season, though it lacked the backup vocals of thousands of Texas families. Now, with a chorus of new legislators in office, the volume is a bit louder under the dome, but lawmakers still risk stepping on millions of public school students and their families. State leaders and many lawmakers have frolicked with billionaires in what we at the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) call the “Texas Three-Step” to defund, demonize, and privatize public schools.
The dance goes like this. Step one: Withhold much-needed public school funding for students and teachers. Through a regular session and four special sessions in 2023, lawmakers failed to pass additional public school funding. Now, school districts are left with budget shortfalls due to federal COVID-19 relief dollars drying up, unfunded state mandates, and fluctuating enrollment which results in less funding.
Step two: Pass policies that restrict students’ access to enriching curricula and impose unfunded mandates, while characterizing public schools as “failing.” Over the past 15 years, lawmakers cut giant holes in education budgets (from which we still haven’t recovered), reduced the rigor of college readiness coursework that students needed to graduate, and passed censorship policies that restrict students’ reading and learning opportunities…