SAN ANTONIO — Speaking from a podium bearing the sign "Parents Matter," Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday evening continued advocating for "parental empowerment" and his hotly debated school vouchers initiative at an event hosted by St. Mary Magdalen School.
Nearly three months after unveiling a "Parental Bill of Rights" that has become the governor's legislative priority during the ongoing session, he told a packed house: "When you think about what parental responsibility means, it means this: Mom and Dad are in charge. It is an immutable principle we must uphold in the State of Texas."
Thursday's Alamo City visit was the latest stop on a statewide tour that's seen Abbott prioritizing a school vouchers initiative that faces opposition in the Legislature. Having focused on it during recent stops in Corpus Christi, Tyler, Houston and elsewhere, school vouchers – or "school choice," as he called it – was the first specific topic broached by Abbott on Thursday.
The program would essentially allow parents to take their children out of public school while receiving state money to educate them elsewhere. The proposal calls for creating an education savings account that would pay parents up to $8,000 per student that they decide to remove each year.
On Thursday, Abbott shared several anecdotes from Texas parents he says are in favor of school choice, including one instance where he met the mother of a child with special needs who was frustrated over an apparent lack of accessibility options at their school.
“She told me a sentence I’m going to recite to you... she said, ‘No one will fight for my kids the way that I will,'" he said. "That’s what moms and dads do.”
But Abbott's speech also targeted public school curriculum. He blasted what he called “a woke, leftist, radical agenda that gets away from the fundamentals,” and deployed a favored talking point that “schools are for education, not indoctrination.”
“We must empower parents,” Abbott said, adding moms and dads should have access to curriculum and knowledge about the books in school libraries.
But rural communities have long opposed voucher proposals, saying they siphon funds away and deplete the community impact of schools in smaller towns. Advocates, on the other hand, see it as empowering parents discontent with public education subjects.
The Texas House recently drew a line in the sand over school vouchers, approving a budget amendment that would prevent the state from paying for it. The development is a stark contrast to a claim made by Abbott on Thursday that school choice "is incredibly popular" across the political spectrum in Texas.
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