Recap: What We Heard at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

Left: State Rep. Eddie Morales (D-Eagle Pass) holds up a sign in support of Texas AFT's Educator's Bill of Rights. Right: State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian), state Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin), and Mitch Little, candidate for HD 65, speak during the "Public Ed and the 89th Legislature" session. 

At this year's exhilarating TribFest 2024, The Texas Tribune brought Texans closer to politics, policy, and the day's news from Texas and beyond. Texas AFT was a proud sponsor of this year's TribFest, bringing together legislators and community members from both sides of the aisles to discuss what matters most to educators in Texas.

On Thursday, Texas AFT sponsored the "Public Ed and the 89th Legislature" session featuring Texas lawmakers and candidates. The discussion centered around the long, ongoing battle over school choice and vouchers and the pressing need for better funding for public schools in Texas. Speakers included Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, state Rep. Ken King, and Mitch Little, a candidate for HD 65.

Both Hinojosa and King spoke at length about how vouchers would disproportionately harm rural school districts, which lack the resources to withstand the diversion of funding to private and charter schools. Hinojosa emphasized the state's responsibility to "fully fund schools," pointing out the surplus of $33 billion in state coffers that has yet to be directed toward education. Texas ranks in the bottom ten states for public education funding, and over 91% of Texas students attend underfunded schools.

On the other hand, King brought up the urgent need to revamp the Texas Education Agency's controversial A-F school accountability system, noting that it is over-reliant on the STAAR exam. STAAR test scores do not reflect students' abilities but are a symptom of the broader systemic issues affecting Texas's education system.

"STAAR was never meant to be used to grade and penalize schools," he pointed out, stating that many districts are on deficit budgets, further straining public education resources across Texas.

Hinojosa backed this concern, explaining, "The STAAR is a black box [that] educators and policymakers don't understand. It's not checking whether kids are on grade level. Most parents hate the STAAR," pointing out wasteful spending after Little used STAAR to claim Texas children aren't meeting grade-level expectations.

In a separate session titled "The Texan Presents: If We Were in Charge," where Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature outlined their vision for Texas, Shelley Luther, a candidate for HD 62, attempted to downplay the impact of school vouchers on rural communities.

"I don't think the school vouchers are going to affect the rural school districts very much," Luther said in response to the Republican push for school vouchers and calling out "liberal teacher unions" that stopped funding from entering our public school system.

However, in the "Public Ed and the 89th Legislature" session, Hinojosa rightly countered that false assertion by warning that if vouchers pass, a wave of micro schools, virtual schools, and other opportunistic ventures could flood rural areas, further destabilizing the financial health of public schools.

These discussions highlighted the fight over how Texas should properly approach school funding and accountability. That's why Texas AFT's Educator's Bill of Rights proves essential to legislators-they have direct feedback from educators and public school staff who have laid out their needs to improve their daily lives.

In addition to sponsoring the session, Texas AFT hosted a booth on the last day of TribFest 2024, where community members stopped by to sign on to our Educator's Bill of Rights. Visitors were eager to learn more about Texas AFT's ongoing efforts to improve public education, including pushing for fair teacher pay, smaller class sizes, and adequate school funding.

As the 89th legislative session approaches, we must maintain the focus that Texas students, teachers, and schools receive the support and funding they deserve.

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