Sunday evening we heard from Texas’ highest-ranking public servant—Governor Greg Abbott—on the State of the State. After ten years as our governor, Abbott is predictable. During the address meant to give Texans a portrait of our state’s financial realities and what to expect during this year’s legislative session, we heard familiar attacks on LGBTQIA+ communities, misinformation about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and of course, robust lies that voucher schemes benefit Texas students and families.
Abbott calls Texas “the blueprint for the future of America.” But should he be proud of the blueprint he’s created?
Given that we’re 41st in per-student funding in our public schools, our electrical grid still isn’t fixed, transgender youth and their families don’t feel safe living here, he’s vowed to continue terrorizing our undocumented neighbors and border communities, and pregnant people in Texas are denied basic healthcare and access to abortion despite broad public support for reproductive freedom, that’s a pretty bleak blueprint.
We can’t let Abbott create the blueprint for our future. Together, we can create our own blueprint.
Abbott brazenly laid out his agenda to attack public education, LGBTQIA+ Texans, and border communities. Below, we have ways that you can fight back.
Once again, Texas lawmakers will make public education their battleground.
During the State of the State, Abbott laid out seven emergency items, which will be the only bills allowed to move during the first 60 days of the session. Two in particular rang alarm bells for the activist community at Texas Freedom Network: vouchers and teacher pay relief.
We’ve heard the lies about vouchers time and time again, and we’ve seen how teachers’ raises and livelihoods have been held hostage inside of voucher bills. Just like last session, when Governor Abbott and the Legislature refused to give teachers raises unless a voucher bill passed.
Let us be clear: Texas teachers deserve raises without having to make compromises that harm public schools and the students they serve. Given Abbott’s track record, it’s hard to trust that teachers will finally receive the raises they deserve.
As the watchdogs of the religious right for 30 years, TFN has spent every session for three decades fighting back against voucher schemes that steal public dollars from students in our public schools to benefit those attending private, religious schools.
In an era where even our President is attempting to dismantle the education system, we must see vouchers for what they are: a plot against neighborhood public schools that serve every child.
If vouchers pass, millions of everyday Texas families will be left with two impossible choices: Send your kid to a public school that’s even less funded than before (that’s if your neighborhood school can keep its doors open) or find a way to pay the difference for private school tuition since voucher programs won’t cover the entire cost.
Megadonors and the politicians in their pockets want to subsidize private schools for the wealthy that can teach propaganda without accountability, while taxpayers foot the bill.
Don’t let them lie to you about vouchers—tell Texas lawmakers that public dollars should stay with public schools that serve all children.
Abbott’s attacks on our neighborhood public schools didn’t stop at vouchers.
Predictably, our Governor used his platform to double down on hateful rhetoric against LGBTQIA+ children, adults, and families being served by our public schools:
- threatening to fire any teachers who affirm their LGBTQIA+ students “on the spot”
- spouting the lie that there are “only two genders”
- cruelly stating “no girls in boys’ sports, period”
- again attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring practices
- labeling education about people from all backgrounds “indoctrination”
Transgender and nonbinary people have always existed and will always exist. Even after passing cruel legislation banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Texas, extremists like Greg Abbott can’t erase our communities—no matter how hard they try.
Abbott is using hate and cruelty to divide Texans, but we don’t have to let our children grow up to be small-minded like him.
In between Abbott’s divisive statements, our partners at Equality Texas took back the airwaves with a statewide campaign of ads featuring transgender Texans talking about their own lives in their own words.
Our stories and our voices can ignite change. LGBTQIA+ Texans belong here. We’ve got us.
Visit our Lege Action Center to learn about opportunities to contact your legislators, drop cards for or against bills, and testify at the Capitol for your community.
Along with LGBTQIA+ Texans, Abbott continues to set his sights on harming our border communities and undocumented neighbors.
While Abbott didn’t declare it an emergency item, he once again praised Operation Lone Star and asked that the Legislature give the failed project even more funds to terrorize people in our border communities.
Everyone in Texas deserves to live with safety and dignity regardless of their immigration status. Abbott is weaponizing the state’s powers to harm our communities and has confirmed that he’ll happily cooperate with the Trump administration to take our undocumented neighbors from their homes and families.
Our Texas Rising project, which organizes young Texans of color for change in our state, will be closely monitoring bills related to immigration and mobilizing people to the Capitol to advocate for our communities.
You can learn more about Texas Rising’s work and get involved here.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Following the State of the State, just know that overwhelming us is part of the far-right’s strategy. You don’t have to fight every battle or know everything happening in Texas politics to get involved and make a difference.
Organizations like Texas Freedom Network are here to be a resource and make advocacy easy. You’re not in this alone. Together, we have power.
As this legislative session ramps up, we have to remember that our desire for progress, our need for hope, and our fight for every Texan to be represented and cared for in the halls of government is shared by most Texans—even in the face of a loud, extremist minority.
Now that we’re in session, we have until May to become champions for progress, share our stories, and take action! We need you by our side. Get involved this session at tfn.org/lege!
We can create the blueprint for our future.
