Voucher Rally in Austin Hints at Things to Come

A rally in Austin, led by a James Leininger-backed PAC, urged legislators on Wednesday to back bills allowing pilot programs for school vouchers. The PAC, Texans for School Choice, is the same group that ran ads in the metroplex promoting vouchers during election season, using the slogan "Give Parents a Choice, Give Kids a Chance."

Leininger was in attendance at the rally.

Although he was not a speaker at the rally, Republican activist James Leininger grabbed attention just for his appearance. Leininger, of San Antonio, has spent billions of dollars in recent years backing Republican candidates who support vouchers and other conservative causes, but he has tended to keep out of the public eye.

The group delivered letters in support of vouchers.

The letters were delivered to the offices of Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, and Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, Miller said.

Mansfield pastor Kyev Tatum, who led a bus load of supporters from Tarrant County to the rally, said the obstacle lies in minority lawmakers who won’t properly lead on the issue.

“The only way it will have a chance is if the black and brown legislators wake up.  . . .  We can’t get [state representative] Marc Veasey’s support because he can’t stop playing party politics,” Tatum said, referring to the Fort Worth Democrat.

Veasey said he has no plans of backing down on his opposition to vouchers. “I’m a proud product of the Fort Worth ISD, my wife is a proud product of the Fort Worth ISD  . . .  and my child will be also,” Veasey said.

Both Gov. Perry and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst are signaling that vouchers will be a big push from Republicans in this legislative session. Several posts cover this today - Capitol Annex, Burnt Orange Report, Texas Kaos and Off the Kuff.

Billboards in Texas Support School Vouchers

James Leininger's political PAC is putting up billboards across Texas asking parents to support school vouchers.

On Monday, the Texans for School Choice political action committee launched a campaign of billboards and radio ads in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston to target low-income, inner-city parents. The ads, which are in Spanish and English, carry the message "Give parents a choice. Give children a chance."

Jobsanger weighs in.

School vouchers are a bad idea, and will contribute to the worsening of our public schools. It has always been a point of pride in this country, that every student is entitled to a free public school education. How will we fulfill this obligation after vouchers destroy our public schools? Our public schools do have some problems, but it makes a lot more sense to fix our public schools instead of destroying them.

We've posted before on Leininger's Edgewood myth. The Jobsanger post lists five good reasons why school vouchers are a very bad idea.