ATPE Executive Director Shannon Holmes has the following statement on the report released Aug. 11 by the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment:

“Public educators are opposed to compromising the future of public schools and the students they serve. In other words, they continue to be opposed to vouchers—in any form.

“We hear every day from Texas educators who are angry that legislators are not fully focused on supporting our public schools. While the select committee report contains many recommendations worthy of pursuit, until the Legislature is willing to talk about those recommendations without injecting the political distraction of a voucher program, it is difficult to take the ideas seriously. Meanwhile, we have school districts across the state going into deficit budgets to provide small pay increases to their employees in a small attempt to stem the tide of teachers leaving the profession because they are weary of political attacks, the lack of resources, and Herculean expectations. One would never know we began the session with a $32 billion budget surplus.”

About the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE)
Founded in 1980, ATPE is the leading educators’ association in Texas with approximately 90,000 members statewide. With its strong collaborative philosophy, ATPE speaks for classroom teachers, administrators, and future, retired, and para-educators and works to create better opportunities for Texas’ more than five million public school students. | atpe.org