Our Response on the passage of Senate Bill 2!

For Immediate Release:

April 17, 2025

Contact: Wesley Lawrence, stonewalldemocratselpaso@gmail.com

Breaking: Texas Republicans Push Unpopular Voucher Scheme to Governor’s Desk — Public Schools Left Behind

El Paso, Texas — While Texas families slept, Republican lawmakers delivered on their long-standing promise to defund public education, quietly passing Senate Bill 2 — a deeply unpopular private school voucher scheme that strips taxpayer dollars from public schools and funnels them to private institutions with zero public accountability.

SB2 is not about "choice" — it’s about abandonment. Abandonment of our public schools, our teachers, and our most vulnerable students. Under the guise of opportunity, this bill creates a dangerous illusion: one where wealthy families benefit while working-class communities are left to pick up the pieces.

This legislation diverts public funds into private institutions that are not required to serve all students, disclose how they spend tax dollars, or meet the standards that public schools uphold every day. The result? Public school campuses across Texas will close. Class sizes will grow. Essential programs — special education, counseling, music, multilingual education, and advanced coursework — will be slashed.

And the pain won’t stop at the schoolhouse doors. As voucher dollars leave our communities, property taxes will increase to backfill funding gaps. Private tuition and daycare costs will skyrocket. Middle-class families will be squeezed from every direction, pushed further toward poverty as the state turns its back on its constitutional responsibility to educate every child.

More than half of Texas counties — over 150 — don’t even have private school options. Yet families in these communities will still pay the price. In El Paso County alone, our schools stand to lose over $61 million under this plan. That’s not just a number — that’s jobs lost, classrooms overcrowded, and futures jeopardized.

All of this is happening while national extremist movements push to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education — threatening the very protections that ensure educational equity, civil rights, and federal funding for our most vulnerable students. It is a coordinated, nationwide assault on public education, and Texas is ground zero.

The Stonewall Democrats of El Paso stand united in fierce opposition to this reckless agenda. We believe every child — regardless of income, zip code, or ability — deserves a high-quality, fully funded public education. We believe education dollars should be spent with transparency, fairness, and accountability.

We are grateful to State Senator Cesar Blanco and State Representatives Mary Gonzalez, Joe Moody, Eddie Morales, Claudia Ordaz, and Vince Perez for standing up for El Paso’s students, educators, and families.

Now it’s our turn.

We will organize, speak out, Vote, and fight back. Public education is not a luxury — it is a right. It is the foundation of a just and equitable society, and we will not allow it to be dismantled.

A message from CD-23 Texas Democratic Committeeman and Stonewall Democrats of El Paso President Wesley Lawrence:

We urge every El Pasoan to make their voice heard in the upcoming School Board elections. Do your homework. Know who’s funding the candidates. Groups like CREEED and Kids First PAC are pouring money into races to advance this destructive voucher agenda. We need leaders who will protect public schools, not dismantle them. We know that the effects of these vouchers will force students with disabilities, students of color, LGBTQ students, low-income students, and rural students (60% of whom don’t have private school options) to receive a lesser education. Democrats in Texas stand united in defending public schools and we will be damned if we let the voters of Texas forget the day the Republicans put oligarchy over their constituents. Lastly, if vouchers ends up becoming a Texas sized money pit that continues for decades to come we urge a bipartisan cap on the amount of taxpayer dollars that fund any and all voucher programs, an income cap for those eligible not to exceed $100,000 a year, and a commission to study the after effects of vouchers in Texas so they don’t become unstable like they traditionally have in other parts of the country.