Starting off his remarks at Parent Empowerment Night at First Odessa Christian Academy Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott said he was there to talk about several things but they all fell under one sentence: Mom and Dad are in charge.
The event was held in the gym of First Baptist Church where the school is located.
“I am a very strong supporter of public schools here in the state of Texas. I went to public school in Longview, Texas, and in Duncanville, Texas, and I’ve seen our public schools flourish extraordinarily well,” Abbott said.
Abbott said he has authorized more funding for public education and authorized more teacher pay raises than any other governor in the history of Texas. He added that per student funding is at an all-time high.
“And we are in the middle of a session where we are going to appropriate billions of more dollars to fund our schools and more for teacher pay raises to make sure that teachers are going to be well compensated when this session is completed,” Abbott said.
When students were forced to learn from home during COVID, parents were watching the children fall behind, he said. Parents were also concerned by what was in some of those lessons.
“I don’t know that that has happened here in Odessa. I do know that it’s happened in multiple locations across the state of Texas and that is this woke agenda being taught to kids. …,” Abbott said.
“I think we can all agree that schools are for education not for indoctrination,” Abbott added.
Parents deserve access to the curriculum in schools, books on the library shelves and the lesson plans of everything that is being taught in their child’s school, he told the crowd.
“We will do that with my parental bill of rights that we will pass.”
“On top of all that, parents also deserve education freedom to choose the school that is best for their child …,’ Abbott said.
He added that it works through education savings accounts that have worked well in other states.
“These accounts are funded separately by the state of Texas and in other states they worked so well. I created a version of it in the state of Texas during the time of COVID when I created these education savings accounts for students with special needs. That program worked so well the legislature came back and they turned it into the law. And this session they’re working to provide even more funding for the program. Now we seek to expand that program so that every parent in the state of Texas will be able to choose the education that is best for their child,” Abbott said.
He added that all public schools will continue to be fully funded the way they are now and there will be accountability as with all things paid for with taxpayer dollars.
When parents have a choice on where to send their children to school the accountability is ultimately parental choice.
Abbott said rural schools will have additional funding over and above what they have now.
Mandy Drogin, campaign director of Next Generation Texas, part of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, urged everyone attending to let their state legislators know their feelings on school choice.
Drogin said there is a crisis of low expectations in schools. Parents need transparency, quality education, respect and parent empowerment.
