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Sources: Gov. Abbott To Pay For Buses To Transport Voucher Supporters To Austin

BY

 STAFF

 -

MARCH 18, 2023

Sources: Gov. Abbott To Pay For Buses To Transport Voucher Supporters To Austin

BY STAFF -MARCH 18, 2023

According to our Austin-based sources, Gov. Abbott will bus a sizable contingent of supporters to Austin the following week as the Legislature examines legislation pertaining to private school vouchers. The pro-voucher crowd likes to claim that there is growing grass-roots support, but this organized effort has all the makings of a planned, phony "AstroTurf" campaign to suggest more support than there is.

 

The text of the message reads: “School choice volunteers, this is extremely short notice, but the legislature is going to decide the fate of our plea this coming Tuesday or Wednesday! Governor Abbott is doing everything possible to help us and has said that he will send us free transportation (buses) and pay our lodging expenses if we have to stay overnight in order to help us. I need to know if you can adjust your schedules to accommodate this date ASAP.”

 

The House Public Education Committee will be meeting on Tuesday morning, while the Senate Education Committee will be considering voucher-related legislation on Wednesday.

The Goldwater Institute, among other pro-voucher organizations, "don't have a lot of grassroots support," according to Charles Siler, a former lobbyist for those organizations, who spoke to RA News. Vouchers for private schools are not widely used. They haven't actually "passed a voucher program by the ballot," according to Siler.

 

 

"The supporters of this stuff won't stop until all public funding for schooling is eliminated...A voucher lobbyist was recently overheard on a hot mic discussing how her ultimate objective was to totally destroy public education, Siler continued.

 

Voters consistently reject voucher policies, according to a 2021 interview with Siler for the Washington Post. "In any state where a public response is allowed, the wave of public opposition to these policies dwarfs the AstroTurfed support for them," Siler said.