FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2023
CONTACT: Emily Witt (she/hers), [email protected]
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Senate Committee on Education today passed HB 100, which would increase teacher salaries. The bill passed with a new committee substitute that adds in school vouchers from the dead SB 8.
The substitute was added in late Sunday.
Texas Freedom Network Senior Political Director Carisa Lopez (she/hers) issued the following response:
“Legislators are holding teacher raises and public school funding hostage by adding a voucher scheme to HB 100. This is a clear last-ditch effort to steal our taxpayer dollars from students who attend our neighborhood schools and give our money to unregulated private and religious schools. Texans and lawmakers from both parties have already rejected these schemes.
“Instead of circumventing the will of the people and continuing their crusade to destroy public education in Texas, our legislators should focus on fully funding our under-resourced public schools and paying our teachers what they deserve without requiring shady compromises at the midnight hour of the session.”
Registration for the public to testify or submit their opinion on the revised bill was cut off less than 45 minutes after the hearing started — typically registration ends after the author has closed on the bill and the hearing is finished.
