Texas Teachers 4 Change

Another angry teacher ready for TX reps to listen to our concerns. Educators demand safety, respect, & professionalism! Support public education! Cancel STAAR!

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Patrick found school choice and property tax reduction to be winning issues among his right-wing base and his growing cadre of big-money donors: backers of TPPF, Empower Texans, & billionaire deans of dark money, Charles and David Koch. #txlege #TEACHers
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Dunn, with the Wilks brothers, formed Empower Texans, primarily targeting public education because the property taxes funding schools ran counter to their billionaire interests & they wanted TX children exposed to their version of Christian values. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

A voucher bill was pushed by House Speaker Tom Craddick and Governor Rick Perry, both of whom had ties to TPPF. (Perry was simpatico with Leininger, once commenting that “this separation of church and state is just false on its face.”) #txlege #TEACHer
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

As critics of both vouchers & charters have asserted, this setup often proves more lucrative for the companies that run them than beneficial to the students who enroll. The setbacks to privatization did not deter Leininger and his allies, however. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Charters, public schools run by nonprofit organizations (some of which contract out their operations to for-profit companies), are exempt from some of the regulations imposed on traditional public schools like state-mandated curriculum standards. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Leininger found an ally in Governor George W. Bush, who ran in 1994 on an education-reform platform that included, along with greater school accountability through standardized testing, support for charter schools and vouchers. #txlege #STAAR #TEACHer
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Leininger’s interests were “vehement opposition to tort laws, abortion, and gay marriage.” He also advocated for “the teaching of such conservative Christian ideas as creationism in private and public schools” and is a proponent of school vouchers. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Monty Bennett, a wealthy Dallas hotelier, is a growing player in the school-privatization movement & cofounder of the nonprofit Texans for Education Rights Institute, involved in a secretive plan to implement a backdoor voucher scheme in Wimberley. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Republican state senator Donna Campbell has links to TPPF, accepted political contributions from the voucher-supporting Texans for Education Reform, is a vocal supporter of charter schools, & took $5K in contributions from Texas Charter Schools Now #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

TPPF is funded by billionaire Tim Dunn, long advocate of allowing parents to use tax dollars to send their children to Christian schools—& who told then–house speaker Joe Straus, who is Jewish, that only Christians should be in leadership positions #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

State rep Jason Isaac worked on various projects with & for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the organization funded in part by billionaire Tim Dunn, long advocated allowing parents to use tax dollars to send their children to Christian schools #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

With distrust in public schools advancing...forces behind the spread of this vitriol are no mystery. Those who would destroy public schools have learned to apply three simple stratagems: destabilize, divide, & open the floodgates of fear. #txlege #TEACHers
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Abbott publicly floated a challenge to the state’s constitutional obligation to give all Texas children, including undocumented ones, a publicly funded education—a step Republican predecessor, Rick Perry, had denounced years earlier as heartless. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Representative Matt Shaheen, who is a member of the Texas Freedom Caucus, introduced a measure that would guarantee state tax credits for those who donate to school-assistance programs—such as scholarships for kids wishing to go to private schools. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Mayes Middleton, Republican state senator & former chair of the TPPF-aligned Texas House Freedom Caucus, filed a bill to create the “Texas Parental Empowerment Program,” proposing education savings accounts that are essentially a form of vouchers. #txlege
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, generously backed by Dunn, the Wilks brothers, & their organizations, has long been a proponent of privatizing public education (& of starving it through reductions in property taxes)...made vouchers a primary #txlege goal
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

“The time is ripe to set Texas children free from enforced indoctrination and Big Government cronyism in our public schools.” The letter went on to herald a $1.2 million “Set the Captives Free” campaign to lobby #txlege to save Texas schoolchildren" #TEACH
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

“The policy team and board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) believe it is now or never,” it read, signaling that the long-standing and robust alliance against vouchers was unusually vulnerable." #txlege #TEACHers
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

Defend Texas Liberty promotes restrictions on reproductive rights, voter access, & same-sex marriage. Almost as influential is the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which argued that “public education is GROUND ZERO” in the fight for freedom. #txlege #TEACH
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc

[Texas Teachers 4 Change @TexasChange]

"By far the most powerful opponents of public schools in the state are West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and the brothers Farris and Dan Wilks. Their vast political donations have made them the de facto owners of many Republican members of the #txlege "
https://t.co/tTo4tS4kvc