I am the ONLY candidate in HD 61 against vouchers. We all know vouchers defund and destroy public schools. I am not endorsed by Governor Abbott who has made vouchers his top priority. I am the only candidate not getting mega donor money and why I need your help.

Lies and misinformation only work when there is no counter message. I need your donation to counter the lies they’re telling. 

1. School vouchers siphon tax dollars away from our public schools to give it to private schools. Under the guise of “school choice,” to attract voters, we all know that vouchers would defund and destroy our neighborhood schools. 
2. FISD has ~67,000 students. If 10% of students withdraw from public schools, FISD would lose $53 million in funding. FISD is already $29 million in the red. (See issues tab for reference)
3. MISD has ~23,000 students. If 10% of students withdraw from public schools, MISD would lose $18.5 million. MISD is also already in the red. 
4. Texas schools are already underfunded by $16 billion. (See issues section below for reference) 
5. Crumbling schools in our future? Teacher layoffs and support staff, music, art, and sports programs cut, building repairs delayed or not done at all. Our public schools are at the center of our local communities. Schools are where parents meet each other, a place where politics doesn’t divide us. 
6. Vouchers are a scam and people are being told that it’s good for kids. The $8000 voucher is simply a direct subsidy to wealthy parents who already can afford to send their kids to private schools. Most private schools in the DFW area cost upwards of $30,000 - $50,000 per year. Only the most wealthy members of our community can afford those prices. That’s why vouchers are sadly a big scam that won’t help most parents or kids. Our children will pay the biggest price, their futures sacrificed all for the political futures of politicians who care only for themselves.  
7. Studies show that the vast majority of parents who used vouchers already had their kids in private schools. In Wisconsin, the number is over 80% and in Arizona over 78%. 
8. Research shows that voucher programs in some states led to worse test score results than natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and even the COVID-19 pandemic. (see issues section below for reference]

1.  Why is Governor Abbott pushing vouchers down our throats?  The legislature, including Republicans and Democrats alike have repeatedly voted AGAINST vouchers. So what’s up with this? Several billionaire mega donors and PACs (Political Action Committees) have given Abbott millions of dollars in campaign contributions even though he’s not even running for election this year. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/16/greg-abbott-jeff-yass-camapaign-donation/ )
2. Why are these billionaire mega donors and PACS donating millions to the Governor? Because the governor needs the money for his rid and replace campaign. Abbott has his cross hairs on every single Republican who voted against his precious vouchers. In HD 61, Abbott will dump money into my opponent’s campaign because he turned his back on our community and voted FOR vouchers despite promising us voters that he was against them. Abbott’s plan is to replace legislators across Texas so that he wins with a Pro-Abbott, Pro-voucher majority. It doesn’t matter what us voters think because Abbott is serving his big donors, not us or our kids. 
3. Why are PACS and big donors so desperate to pass vouchers?  Because they smell big money to be made off vouchers. Check out the numbers: Texas has 5.4 million students in public schools. Let's say, 30% of students in Texas (1.6 million) get $8000 of tax dollars to subsidize their private school tuition, that’s $13 billion/year out the door and into the pockets of unaccountable private enterprises. Our children will not go to $36,000-$50,000 per year private schools. They may end up going to an online K1-12 school costing $8000 or a bit more per year. The rich will still send their kids to expensive schools but now with our hard earned tax dollars. The rest of us will either send our kids to some Big Online schools owned by big companies or we will continue in public schools that will decay as we get less and less funding, year after year.  
4. Is this what we want for our kids? Research the impact of isolation (online schools) due to the lack of social interactions that we all noticed during COVID.
5. School vouchers are a big scam backed by political bosses looking out for themselves.  To defund and slowly destroy our neighborhood schools will also destroy our local economy and our communities as a whole, the impact devastating and irreversible.