1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Senator Hall, I want to reach out to you as a Texas mother and public school special educator. I am deeply concerned about the dismantling of the federal department of education, as well as the education savings account plans making their way through the Texas legislature. I work with young children who sometimes have severe physical or developmental delays. As I’m sure you are aware, most counties in Texas do not even have private schools nearby, and those that do are under no legal obligation to accept children with disabilities nor follow their Individualized Education Plans. In addition, the school I work at is a title 1 school. Many of my families are low income and would not be able to afford private school, even if given the dollar amounts proposed in either HB 3 and SB 2. I also am very concerned as to where the funding for this proposal will come from. We have been promised that the money is not coming from public education, but public education is already underfunded, and projections are that the cost of these savings plans would balloon well beyond 1 billion in future years. I urge you to support funding for public schools first, and make sure students like my sons or the children I work with recieve the quality free and appropriate public education they are promised, by law. The marketing is that SB 2 and HB 3 are about offering parents a choice. I take issue with this argument. The vast majority of private school seats are already occupied. Spending 1 billion to place maybe 100,000 students in seats while 5.5 million students are barely getting the funding they need in their public schools is unconscionable. I am begging you, please do the right thing. Support us. Help us grow and improve. Being 41st in public education funding is disgraceful. Teacher pay more than 7k below national average is disgraceful. Please use your power and listen to your constituents! Support senate bills that provide public education funding, and in particular special education funding. Thank you.