FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 9, 2023
Contact Bee Moorhead
Texas Impact, the oldest and largest interfaith advocacy group in the state, today issued the following statement urging lawmakers to reject any legislation creating a program diverting taxpayer dollars to subsidize private schools—regardless of whether the program is called a “voucher,” an “educational savings account,” or something else:
The Texas Legislature has a constitutional duty “to make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.” The Texas Constitution is equally clear that public funding is not to support religious schools or the teaching of any particular faith.
Public education is one of the most important tools available to Texas, or any state, to equip future leaders for American democracy. Faith communities were instrumental in establishing public education in the modern world, and remain among its staunchest advocates.
Vouchers would sap resources from Texas public schools, while at the same time undercutting religious freedom for Texas’ increasingly diverse population— contradicting two of the state’s foundational principles. Texas Impact is committed to providing Texans of faith with the information and resources they need to advocate for public education, and to oppose the establishment of a private school subsidy program in our state.
FACTS FOR MEDIA:
FAITH AND CONSCIENCE-BASED OPPOSITION TO VOUCHERS HAS LONG HISTORY IN TEXAS
- Texas and its faith leaders have been at the forefront of fighting for public education and religious freedom as far back as 1890 when Christians of different denominations in Victoria County sparred about the sectarian nature of the county’s school system. The controversy ended five years later when the State Board of Education prohibited the “subterfuge” of “teacher vouchers” under Article 1, Section 7, of the Texas Constitution.
- After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Governor Allan Shivers formed the Advisory Committee on Segregation in the Public Schools, which resulted in House Bill 235, a “tuition grant program” intended to appease parents who did not want their children to attend integrated schools voucher to be used at a nonsectarian private school. Designed to comply with the Texas Constitution, the bill failed to pass only because Senator Henry B. Gonzales of San Antonio waged a then-record 35-hour filibuster.
ABOUT TEXAS IMPACT:
Texas Impact is a religious grassroots network whose members include individuals, congregations, and governing bodies of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths. Texas Impact exists to advance state public policies that are consistent with the shared values of Texas faith communities.
The non-profit works on a wide variety of public policy issues within the broadly held social concerns of mainstream religious traditions. Texas Impact uses a process of discernment on public policy issues like the processes used by many faith traditions, including Scripture, the wisdom of the faith traditions, current public policy information and data, and the experiential knowledge of people of faith to develop our positions and policy goals.
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