For Texas Freedom Network Advocacy Day, youth activists, public education advocates, and faith leaders gathered for a statewide day of action.
Photos from Texas Freedom Network’s press conference can be found here
A recording of the press conference can be found here
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2025
CONTACT: Emily Witt, emily@tfn.org
AUSTIN, Texas — Youth activists, public education advocates, and faith leaders organized by the Texas Freedom Network and its projects Texas Rising and Just Texas today gathered for Texas Freedom Network’s Advocacy Day, a statewide day of action that provides Texans with advocacy training and the opportunity to meet with lawmakers about legislation in the areas of public education, religious freedom, LGBTQIA+ equality, reproductive rights, voting rights, and immigration rights.
Following a morning of training and community building, representatives from Texas Freedom Network, Texas Rising, Just Texas, Asian Texans for Justice, IDRA, and SEAT gathered for a rally focused on uplifting Texas public schools and rejecting private school vouchers.
“We are here today because we all believe Texas can be a place that is fair, just, and truly free for everyone,” said Felicia Martin (she/her), Texas Freedom Network Executive Director. “For too long, the far-right legislators in this building have used their power to push a hateful agenda — one that stifles progress, pits us against one another, and holds us back from the promise of a better future. And when it comes to pushing that personal agenda, there’s no better example than Governor Abbott’s latest attempt to divert taxpayer money into private schools through his voucher scheme. We’ve beaten it before, and we’ll beat it again because our public dollars belong to our public schools.”
“Vouchers are bad policy. And it’s not just about sending kids to private schools — it’s about the money that is [being taken], money that is needed to fund our public education system, especially in the face of a federal administration that is trying to gut our entire federal obligations,” said Rep. Venton Jones (he/him), Texas State Representative for House District 100. “At a time where we should be investing in our schools, they’re trying to take billions of dollars of state resources out of public schools.”
“Our public education system is being attacked and robbed right before our eyes,” said Jazmeyne Evans (any/all), Texas Rising Advocacy and Field Organizer for Corpus Christi. “Vouchers, education savings accounts, school choice — so many different names for defunding public programs and giving that money to private companies and schools. Personally, I graduated from my public high school as a Certified Medical Assistant & Pharmacy Technician due to the programs they offered. This would have been impossible without the funding that some lawmakers in this building are trying to take away.”
“Vouchers threaten this vital institution we love and know as our public schools — because vouchers drain them of funds and resources,” said Rev. Teresa Welborn (she/her), Just Texas community member and University United Methodist Church Senior Pastor. “Not only do vouchers take funds away from our public schools, they send these taxpayer dollars to private schools and the parents who have the means to send their children there — private schools that can and do refuse children entrance based on a variety of factors, primarily the income of the child’s parents. The voucher scheme discriminates and is classist.”
“The school voucher experiment is a failure, and we don’t need to make 5.5 million Texas students the new guinea pigs to prove it,” said Dr. Chloe Latham Sikes (she/her), IDRA Deputy Director of Policy. “It is unacceptable for our public dollars to go toward a private school voucher program that can discriminate against children and their families, while draining money away from our public schools.”
“Vouchers don’t level the playing field. They tilt it,” said Akeela Kongdara (she/her), Asian Texans for Justice Youth Programs Senior Associate. “They give tax dollars to private schools while draining public ones. And families like ours—families that speak different languages, practice different faiths, or come from immigrant backgrounds—will be the first to lose out. In the AAPI community alone, we speak over 100 languages and represent a broad range of ethnicities and religions. Vouchers limit our choices by funneling resources away from public schools that welcome and serve all students.”
“I’ve watched hours of public testimony on vouchers, and time and time again, I hear the same stories from proponents about the struggles Texas public schools are facing,” said Hayden Cohen (they/them), Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) State Policy Lead. “But the truth is those struggles are caused by our state lawmakers who have chosen to underfund our schools and ignore the needs of Texas students. It’s a simple formula: Take away resources from our public schools, then blame those very schools for lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, and test scores. But the answer isn’t to give up on our public schools. The answer is to invest in them.”
Following Texas Freedom Network’s Advocacy Day Rally, attendees met with legislators and distributed stories from teachers, students, parents, and community members who have been positively impacted by public schools gathered as part of TFN’s multimedia “Love Public Schools” campaign.
Stories distributed to legislators can be found here.
