The temperature stood just above freezing and a cold mist was falling, but the weather didn’t keep people away from the Save Texas Schools rally. Public school supporters from across the state packed two rooms at the First United Methodist Church on Saturday to demand that Texas lawmakers properly fund the state’s public schools.
“It just reminded me how many good people we have in Texas that love our kids, teachers, and schools,” said Allen Weeks, the executive director of Austin Voices for Education and Youth and a principal organizer of the rally. “We had 1,200 folks out on a really gloomy day and the response was really positive. I think it helped people get clear on what’s happening, which is the grift, the theft of funding from our public schools.”
Weeks had originally expected thousands for an outdoor rally at the Capitol but downsized the event when the weather turned cold, bringing it inside to First United’s Family Life Center, with a capacity of 400. He added the church’s sanctuary as an overflow room as more people promised to attend. A video feed was set up to broadcast speeches from the youth center to the sanctuary but it malfunctioned. The speakers – including U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Austin ISD Trustee Lynn Boswell, and state Reps. Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico – adapted by speaking twice, first in the youth center and then across Lavaca Street at the sanctuary.
“Rural public schools are the backbone of our great, conservative small towns.” – Former State Representative Glenn Rogers
Schoolteacher Rena Clegg remembered standing on a stage beside Gov. Greg Abbott as a Parmer Lane Elementary School teacher in 2019 while he signed a bill providing more funding for public schools. Four years later, she said, she stood in front of the same stage, begging school district trustees not to close Parmer Elementary as the district dealt with a budget crisis.
“Most Texas districts are facing this problem right now,” Clegg said, fighting back tears. “This is not because of wasteful spending, and we all know it’s not because of high teacher salaries. It is due to lack of funds from the state of Texas, because our state leaders are actively working to destroy public schools in the name of school choice.”
School choice, more commonly known as vouchers, was the twin topic each of the speakers addressed. The proposal, which allows parents to take taxpayer money out of the public schools for use on private school expenses, has become a litmus test for Republican leaders over the last two years. Former state Rep. Glenn Rogers, a Republican who was primaried out of his position last year when he refused to vote for vouchers, told the audience that each day more rural Republicans realize that state leaders are lying to them about the issue.
“Rural public schools are the backbone of our great, conservative small towns,” said Rogers, who drove four hours to speak at the rally. “And yet our so-called conservative state leaders have completely neglected our struggling rural ISDs, instead of taking care of rural Texans’ needs. It seems our governor is exclusively tending to what his billionaire out-of-state donors want. He has violated the trust of hundreds of thousands of rural Texans.”
This article appears in February 28 • 2025.
