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Gov. Greg Abbott visited San Antonio on Monday evening for the latest stop on a tour of private Christian schools to promote a school-voucher-like program.
The events, called Parent Empowerment Nights, are organized by the influential right-wing think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation.
San Antonio Christian School hosted Monday’s stop. Head of School Rob Brown said their school is working to expand access to Christian education by “making it more accessible to families in need.”
“We're excited to potentially embrace the handful of new families who want to join us on this campus,” he added.
“Our school community is focused on shaping young lives, helping children fully embrace God's unique design for them and to answer the big questions in life, like, 'who am I? Where do I come from? And what's my purpose?'” Brown added. “Faith-based schools have a lot to speak into those types of questions, and so we're thankful for the opportunity that God may soon have to be able to do that on a bigger basis.”
Abbott praised the school choir for singing a medley of patriotic songs. He said public schools need to teach more about what makes the United States great. He called on the audience to show their support for vouchers, and he pushed back against what he said were false claims made by opponents of using state dollars to pay for private school.
“They make it sound like it's just for rich white people,” Abbott said. “The fact of the matter is school choice is strongly desired by the Hispanic community and the Black community, and this provides a level playing field and equal opportunity for everybody.”
The voucher proposal under consideration in Texas would give families $10,000 in state funding to pay for private school tuition through a mechanism called an education savings account. High school tuition at San Antonio Christian School is more than $17,000, and that doesn’t include uniforms or extracurriculars.
Abbott also said voucher opponents were wrong to say it takes money away from public schools.
“There is a category of funding that is going to be provided for public schools. There's a separate category of funding that's going to be provided for school choice. You don't take from one and give to the other. You’re not choosing one against the other — pitting one against the other,” he added.
But Aimee Miller of Boerne didn’t buy that argument. She was part of a crowd of protesters who stood across the street from the gated campus throughout the event.
“If it's public funds, it should be going to public resources,” Miller said.
State lawmakers plan to set aside $1 billion from the state budget for vouchers, which, by definition, means that there will be $1 billion less available to spend on other things, including public schools.
Miller is a mom of two young children and a former public school teacher. She said she protested for more than three hours in the hope that people who came to hear Abbott would be inspired to do more research on vouchers.
“I'm sure it would be beneficial for some people, but I think that if they really look into society and community as a whole, it's not about what's perfect for me, it's about what's best for us as a community,” Miller said. “And keeping our funds in public school is just, I think, the backbone to our society.”
Miller said public schools need more money in order to pay teachers better. She said she had to stop teaching after she had kids because her family couldn’t afford the cost of daycare and insurance.
“It's not what I necessarily wanted, but I had to make a choice,” Miller said. “I would love to be working, and so I think teacher pay is a big thing that needs to be [a higher priority]. There's just so many things that the funds could do that would benefit our society as a whole.”
San Antonio Christian School is located inside the North East Independent School district boundaries.
College student Sage Monney said she attended the protest because her NEISD middle school is getting shut down. Driscoll Middle School is a five-minute drive from San Antonio Christian School. NEISD trustees voted to close Driscoll and two elementary schools last week to help reduce the district’s budget deficit.
“The school next to my house — the middle school — is getting shut down,” Monney said. “I had a really positive experience with public schools, but all these charter schools have been showing up, and now they're losing enrollment. And I just want to show that I support my public schools, and I support my teachers, and I want money to go to them, and not to these random private schools.”
Pastor Servando Avelar attended San Antonio Christian School’s Parent Empowerment Night. He said he supports giving parents state tax dollars to pay for private school tuition.
“We pay our taxes. Everybody pays our taxes. So, it's our money. Somebody can say this [is] public money. No, it's our money. Because the government, they don't produce money,” Avelar said.
Avelar home schools his children. The voucher proposal passed by the Texas Senate earlier this month would give families $2,000 for home-school expenses.
“We have the right to educate our children in accordance with our convictions,” Avelar said. “I’m for freedom of education because it’s very important that our kids are [taught] the truth [and not] indoctrinated.”
Abbott also pointed to what he called woke schools as a reason parents should be able to use state money to pay for private school.
He made a similar tour of private Christian Schools in 2023, when he called multiple special sessions to try to get voucher legislation over the finish line and refused to sign legislation providing more funding to public schools unless the bill also created a voucher program.
After failing to get enough votes in the Texas House of Representative to pass vouchers in 2023, Abbott threw the full weight of his office and influence into ensuring they pass this year by endorsing challengers to anti-voucher incumbents in the House and providing them with large donations.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burroughs and the chair of the House public education committee, Rep. Brad Buckley, both attended the event with Abbott. They said legislation to increase teacher pay and create a school voucher program would be filed by Buckley this week.
Saile Aranda contributed to this report.
