The Texas House of Representatives is debating public education bills today. One of them is Senate Bill 2, the voucher bill, which would create a $1 billion private school voucher program, which would give participants $10,000 a year to attend private schools.

Discussion is anticipated to go all day and if the House approves the bill, it will make its way back to the Senate which approved a different version of the bill in February. 

House Bill 2, a $8 billion proposal which would increase public school funding, will also be considered by the House today. It will increase the student basic allotment by $1,300 which will bring funding back to the levels it should have been in 2019.

With a busy day in the House chamber, people flooded into the Capitol to support and reject proposals, particularly the voucher bill. The Texas Freedom Network organized hundreds of activists to gather in the Capitol’s rotunda to protest vouchers.

Emily Witt who has been a part of the Texas Freedom Network for more than three years said that it has been a priority of theirs to organize events like these in hopes of preventing proposals like vouchers which she believes will negatively affect public schools. 

“We’ve been fighting back against vouchers for about 30 years,” Witt said. “From our perspective, vouchers drain public funds from our public schools and give them to private and religious schools that can discriminate against Texas kids.”

The ability to discriminate and turn away a student for whatever reason that private schools have is something that Witt and the Freedom Network strongly oppose.

“Vouchers are a religious freedom violation in our opinion,” she said. “Those tax dollars are often going to religious schools that don’t have to meet the same criteria as public schools and can again discriminate against our students, and don’t have to accept all students or not accept their identities within their schools.”

One strategy that anti-voucher lawmakers and supporters are hoping for is that the vote will go to the people in November. This will allow Texas voters to decide whether or not the voucher program should be implemented.

“We’re really hoping that vouchers don’t pass at all,” Witt said. “If they do pass, we do believe that the people should have a voice and be able to vote on whether or not they want them. We think if Gov. Abbott really believes that Texans want vouchers then he should have no problem with it going to the ballot box.”

The protest that the Freedom Network organized drew in people who have been fighting against vouchers for years, and also those who are fighting back against them for the first time, like Brentwood Elementary school parent Christina Hungria.

“If vouchers get passed and I don’t do anything, I would feel terrible,” Hungria said. “I would like the opportunity to vote against them because that’s what the United States is about, democracy and hearing the people.”

Hungria and others are against vouchers because they are viewed as taking away funds from public schools and draining public school resources while using public funds to benefit private school and private school students.

“The reason why I don’t want them is because I feel you can’t educate only 10% of our country,” Hungria said. “You need plumbers, electricians, you need people that can fix your car, you need people who can read and do math at all levels of our country. I think educating all of our country is the best way to keep America great.”

This being Hungria’s first time showing up to oppose vouchers, she noticed how many people joined her in the fight.

“It’s fantastic and inspiring, to see that so many people care,” she said. “That’s what democracy is about, showing our opinion, showing what we want and seeing all of the red in the building today and very little purple. I think that shows what the people really want.”

Attendees ranged from elementary-aged kids to grandmothers like Rosalba Sotblo, who is a mother of two girls who attended public schools in the Austin Independent School District and who just like Hungria was amazed by the crowd.

“Seeing everyone here makes me want to cry,” Sotblo said. “I wish there would be more people here, but people have to work. I have many things to do, but I feel that I have to at least scream for those who are coming behind me to have a chance.”

Sotblo believes that vouchers and a lack of school funding threaten the schools that allow anyone and everyone to attend.

“It’s so important for schools to be open and to give a chance to everyone,” she said. “If there are no public schools, they have nothing. It’s a chance for everyone to get an education. When you get an education, you can go places you can go anywhere you want. They want us to be uneducated because it’s easier to control the masses when they are uneducated.”

Sotblo hopes that the House will decide to allow the public to vote on the voucher bill.

Even though Sotblo and her children are no longer of the age for public schools, she felt an obligation to show up in order to help create a better future for those who come after her.

“It’s important to me that other people get a chance,” she said. “There are people that have nothing and if they have a school they have a chance. You have to have something to hope for, something to rest on. Education is the most important thing. It’s more valuable than money because your mind can go anywhere you want it to go.”

As attendees gathered into the House chamber, a press conference was held in the rotunda. This included many state representatives like state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City.

“Our public schools are the great equalizer that no matter what your zip code, every child should have a great public education so that they can compete in a global economy,” he said. “Nelson Mandela was right. Education is the most powerful weapon to use to change the world.”

Reynolds then made it clear what he hopes to see Texas voters and legislators do.

“We will not sell out to Gov. Abbott like he has already sold out to the billionaires,” he said. “We will prioritize our public schools. We will continue to fight so that every kid can have a great future for public schools.”

State Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, D-Houston, also took to the megaphone to share her firsthand experience of working for these issues. 

“I’m state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, but before that I was organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons,” she said. “I spent five years organizing teachers with the teachers’ union, so I saw first hand the beauty and the love and the amazingness of our public schools.”

Since the start of this year’s legislative session numerous different organizers have led rallies and pushed back against vouchers, something Simmons says will continue.

“Guess what y’all, we’re not going down without a fight.” she said. “They can tell us to be quiet, but they can’t tell us to move. We’re here, we’re not afraid, and let me tell y’all it’s absolutely a scam.”

With the House floor debate still underway, anti-voucher rallies are hoping for a stop to the bill or that it will be up to the voters.

“We know what we’re talking about, we know what public education means to our people,” she said. “We will not back down, and we will not be quiet. Greg Abbott looks at us, hears us and sees us. Let the voters decide what they want to do for their children’s education.”