Parent Empowerment
What to know: Texas public school parents and teachers are just realizing that, in their leadership’s haste to deny parents choice, they also blocked a bill that would have increased teacher pay—now they’re blaming the Legislature rather than admit, they sabotaged teacher pay all to block parent empowerment.
The TPPF take: The state surplus doesn’t “belong” to the public school system—it belongs to the taxpayers of Texas for the education of each child. Second, the public school system did it to themselves—they blocked HB 100, which would have increased school funding by $4.4 billion, because the bill included ESAs.
“It’s not about the money, really,” said TPPF’s Mandy Drogin, “It’s about maintaining their power and control of kids. Earlier this year, a public education advocate told legislators that, no matter how much money was offered, the public schools would always oppose parental choice and ESAs. Yes, the unions and associations denied teachers a pay raise and turned down billions of dollars in funding—but suddenly, it’s the Legislature’s fault?”
For more on parent empowerment, click here.
Less Spending Leads to Lower Taxes
What to know: “Taxation and government spending are inseparable,” according to one Texas lawmaker. Hence, the surest way to lower taxes is to lower spending.
The TPPF take: It’s well past time for the Texas Legislature to pass a comprehensive local government spending limit.
“Right now, state leaders are making good progress to contain Texas’ property tax problem and relieve some of the burden,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “Looking ahead, policymakers should also be thinking of ways to get local government spending under control. That is the real source of today’s tax crisis.”
For more on local spending, click here.
Data Privacy
What to know: Texas now leads the nation with the strongest, most consumer-friendly data privacy rules.
The TPPF take: Texans deserve the protections lawmakers delivered in the regular session.
“When parents were asked if social media companies do enough to protect children, nearly 80% disagreed, with 60% in strong disagreement,” says TPPF’s David Dunmoyer. “When you think about the fact that parents are up against companies with trillions of dollars in net worth that are working daily to develop new technologies addict children more and more, this truly is a crisis.”
For more on data privacy, click here.