Brothers, Sisters and Siblings, 

Governor Abbott’s special legislative session ends next Tuesday and, thankfully, it looks like time has run out to pass a voucher bill this session.

Even though they didn’t get it passed this time around, the fight to keep public taxpayer dollars out of private schools is far from over. Abbott has made it clear that he may call legislators back to Austin as many times as it takes to pass this legislation.  

There’s no way to sugar-coat it: Vouchers are a dark money, billionaire backed scam to siphon our tax dollars away from public schools and use them to subsidize unaccountable private education for the wealthy. 

Our state leaders who support this dangerous scheme have shown they’re more than willing to use our neighborhood public schools, teachers and kids as political pawns to try and push vouchers through. A prime example: on Tuesday, just hours before the deadline for expanding the scope of the special session, Abbott added public school funding and teacher pay to the agenda. 

At the same time, he doubled down on vouchers by raising the per-child amount to $10,400 – with no limits on who would be eligible – a move that could result in astronomical costs to taxpayers and our public schools. .

Even with the clock ticking on this special session, we must keep up the pressure on our lawmakers to let them know that the working people of Texas will not accept vouchers – not now, not ever. 

Join us in support of our public schools, our teachers and the children of Texas: 

In solidarity, 

Texas AFL-CIO