AUSTIN — When state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, told Parent Teacher Association members from around Texas on Monday that vouchers can be an asset for families in his school district, he was met with an immediate rebuke.
“The reason I prioritized children with disabilities first is [because] we have significant issues sometimes with kids who are receiving special education services they need in a public school setting,” said Buckley, chair of the Public Education Committee in the Texas House of Representatives.
Buckley looked to his hometown of Killeen as an example throughout his explanation of House Bill 3, which would create education savings accounts — commonly called vouchers — to give taxpayers’ money to families who want to pay for their children’s private and religious school education.
Under the current version of House Bill 3, most participating students would get an amount equal to 85% of what public schools get for each student through state and local funding. It’s a key difference from the Senate plan, which would provide a set amount of $10,000 to most participating students.
When Buckley cited the tuition of the nonprofit Killeen private school, which is far lower than many Texas private schools, it highlighted the difference between the Senate and House voucher plans.
Education funding bills are an attempt to address the wave of budget deficits in Texas school districts. The state’s basic allotment hasn’t changed since 2019, leaving districts to freeze hiring or lay off teachers and paraprofessionals. Specialists who work as reading and math interventionists have been shed across the state as districts have closed campuses.
Lawmakers and school leaders don’t agree on the amount of the per-student allotment, but virtually all Texas school districts report that they receive $6,160 per student, based on average daily attendance.
PTA leaders asked for a $1,340 increase in the allotment, the end of State of Texas Assessments of Academy Readiness (STAAR) testing in favor of more benchmark evaluations throughout the school year, better pay for teachers and a rejection of vouchers.
But Buckley bristled at the booing.
“OK, I’ll just say this, you may choose to ‘other’ children like that, but I will not,” he said.
Buckley was met with a roar of disapproval.
“Raise your hand if you have a child in special education,” a woman shouted to the audience. Hands shot up throughout the church sanctuary as Texas PTA President Jennifer Easley asked the audience for calm and respect.
“When he is respectful of his voters, then we will be, too!” another member shouted in response, eliciting cheers and applause.
Buckley said parents deserve “every tool in the toolbox to provide what’s best for their kids.”
“All I can tell you is what I believe in my heart from what I’ve seen,” he said. “And this is not an either-or decision. Every parent deserves the opportunity to create a pathway that’s best for their kids.”
The PTA representatives responded by chanting, “Fund our schools.”
Texas PTA posted an apology to Buckley on social media Monday afternoon, as PTA members were making their way through the Capitol to meet with their elected leaders.
The Facebook post had more than 100 comments by about noon Tuesday, overwhelmingly condemning Buckley’s support for vouchers, but the post was no longer visible Tuesday afternoon. A similar post remained up on Texas PTA’s X account.
Rally Day brings people together in support of public education, students & teachers. That work is most effective when we engage in civil discourse. We apologize to @BradBuckleyDVM & remain committed to ensuring that our events continue to be spaces where all voices are heard.
— Texas PTA (@txstatepta) February 24, 2025
Cooler heads, deeper conversation
It was in lawmakers’ offices — or out in the Capitol hallway, as it happened when it came time for Denton and Lewisville ISD PTA leaders to talk with Sen. Hagenbuch’s chief of staff — that conversations got more granular and parents told politicians they are watching their schools show the stress fractures of chronic underfunding.
Some of the discussion was about raw numbers, like the basic allotment, which is the number of dollars the state gives a district for each student based on average daily attendance.
Suzanne Danhof, an officer in the Denton ISD Council of PTAs, said linking dollars to attendance immediately cuts into state funding. She gathered with Denton and Lewisville ISD PTA members in Rep. Hayes’ conference room to discuss needs with Brandon Moore, Hayes’ legislative director.
“Remember that the average daily attendance for the state of Texas went to 94%,” Danhof said. “So 6%, right off the bat, is reduced from our daily allotment.”
Jackie deMontmollin, a PTA member who retired from Denton ISD as fine arts director, said that diverting public school funds to education savings accounts could gut fine arts programs. When the fine arts are cut, deMontmollin said, a pathway to academic rigor is blocked.
“As soon as you start siphoning money off into other systems, the chopping block is going to become your orchestra program,” she said. “Then it’s going to be your band program. And I will tell you something: Football parents do not like it when the band is not there. During COVID, I was getting so many calls. ‘Can you get the band out there?’ …
“The games are a community festival. You have drill team. You have cheer. You have the choir singing the national anthem. You try to have a pep band out there, which is what’s going to happen, because marching band is very expensive. Like, you’re going to gut the things that create community.”
Leslie Andrews, a Lewisville ISD PTA member, told Moore that the COVID-19 pandemic was her window into the risks of funding private schools and homeschooling, because the state will not demand transparency or accountability from private education. And should lawmakers approve vouchers, public schools will have to educate all students and meet accountability standards with less money.
“I’m a product of public school. I had a full scholarship at [the University of Oklahoma] on my public school education,” she said. “I was an accountant, a CPA, but I have a child that has complex medical needs, so she, in her public school, is a [Section] 504 plan kid.
“When the pandemic hit, schools didn’t really have the dollars to figure out how to properly address all of that. So her medical specialist said, ‘You probably need to homeschool this child.’ And we did that, until two years later, I now have Stage 4 ovarian cancer.”
Andrews said her cancer diagnosis was part of the reason both of her children returned to public school. Looking back, she said, she feels privileged that she was able to homeschool, but she confronted the challenges that come with teaching a child without being “a qualified teacher.” Texas law requires that homeschoolers must be taught reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship, but the state has no apparatus that confirms compliance with the law.
“As somebody that kind of has that blended experience of being an advocate for public school but also a beneficiary of school choice, one thousand percent, what happens with those dollars if I say, ‘Well, I want to try this for my kid,’ and then a month later, I change my mind and I want to enroll them in public school — those dollars don’t follow them there from what I can tell,” Andrews said.
A time for optimism?
As Denton ISD PTA members boarded their bus back to Denton, they discussed their meetings and their confidence that their legislators will support public education, especially in deep red Denton County.
“I think that, while it feels disheartening when a couple of them listened, but did not listen to understand, we are their constituents,” said Denton PTA member Tanya Wright, who is also running for Place 3 on the Denton ISD school board. “Somebody said it really well in Mr. Hayes’ office. They don’t represent the governor or the lieutenant governor — they represent their constituents. And the more and more we continue to say it as constituents and continue to vote that way, it moves the needle.”
Denton school board Place 5 member Charles Stafford — who traveled with the PTA members along with Place 1 member Barbara Burns and Place 6 member Lori Tays — said grassroots volunteers like PTA moms and dads put a face and a voice to sprawling Texas districts. He said the meetings and meals with elected officials build trust.
“It’s real valuable,” Stafford said. “They didn’t get their face-to-face today, but they got their message delivered. I’m personally going to keep notes on what I was promised. They may read it in print nine months from now, and they might not want it, but that’s OK. That’s our system.”