Deann Lee, the Regional Advocacy Director of East Texas for Raise Your Hand Texas, spoke to the Rotary Club of Livingston recently regarding the recent legislative session and its impact on education.
Raise Your Hand Texas is a nonprofit that supports public policy solutions that invest in students, encourage innovation and autonomy, and improve college, military and workforce readiness. Its mission is to educate, engage and activate Texans through public education policy and advocacy.
In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of Texas business and community leaders founded Raise Your Hand Texas with the belief that all Texas children should have equal access to high-quality education and that public dollars should stay in public schools. At the time, the group recognized that Texas public education, an essential investment offered to all Texas families and their children, was under attack by those who sought to dismantle this constitutionally guaranteed public good.
The statewide advocacy team works in communities throughout the state to raise the voices of parents, teachers, community leaders, business owners and students who care about the future of public education. Its advocacy work, alongside current research, informs the policy recommendations made to Texas lawmakers.
Today, Raise Your Hand Texas continues to fight for Texans’ right to a free, high-quality public school experience for every child. To support this, it has established seven core policy priorities that guide its long-term work across Texas and at the Texas Capitol, strengthening and supporting public schools in Texas. These seven policy areas include school funding, teacher workforce, supporting the whole child, assessment and accountability, future workforce, school vouchers and charter schools.
According to Lee, the key education themes from the legislative session were: $8.5 billion in new school funding; investment in teachers and teacher preparation; movement on overhauling STAAR and A-F accountability; major new voucher program established; increase in state mandates for public school classrooms; focus on parental rights, DEI bans, library materials; and property tax relief.
She said the result is more strings and less flexibility, in other words, the new dollars are tied to specific programs with less local decision making authority.
Lee also emphasized the importance of engaging with legislators and suggested several opportunities to do that, including: sharing legislative alerts; leaving phone messages with legislators; sharing on social media; making phone calls; sending a postcard; sending an email; knowing your legislator’s committees; voting; writing letters, attending legislative forums; invite your state legislators to local events; scheduling or attending an advocacy day with legislators; and testifying or submitting testimony at committee hearings.
She recommended getting to know the legislative staffs and watching public meetings online. “Build a relationship. Advocacy isn’t adversarial. There are many ways in the process you can get involved,” Lee said, adding, “Be a subject matter expert.”
Some of the sites she recommended viewing included teachthevote.org, Texas Tribune, Quorum Report and Texas Legislature Online. For additional information, go to raiseyourhandtexas.org.
