By Rosie Perez
A public school classroom is a magical place. I remember the awe and wonder my teachers brought out in me. I recall the sparkle and enthusiasm I saw from my own children as they became lifelong learners. I cherished my time in the classroom and as a social worker, helping young El Pasoans set up for a brighter future.
Working in public education, as I did for a decade as a classroom teacher, means you experience the rich fabric of a community filled with children from all backgrounds and walks of life.
I’ve seen the power of public education and you probably have, too. In my family, we have welders who benefited from robust career and technical education programs. We have an attorney working for NASA, forensic scientists and investigators working with the FBI in Washington, D.C., and others in hospitals and health care serving their communities in Texas.
The common thread is their experience in Texas public schools. It puts dreams within reach.
However, our public schools, our students, and our teachers need more Texans in their corner to ensure they have the funding and resources to succeed.
My public education advocacy work has taught me that the decisions of our governor, lieutenant governor and state legislators at the Texas Capitol in Austin — 500 miles away — have an outsized impact on our neighborhood public schools.
Last year, the Texas Legislature provided a much-publicized $8.5 billion to public education. Helpful, yes, but it still keeps us in the bottom 10 states in per-pupil funding and a long way from what school districts across our state need as they struggle to manage inflation, multimillion-dollar budget deficits, and looming school closures.
When it comes to funding our public schools, I think it’s time we took a new approach.The Legacy Endowment Fund could be just what Texas needs, providing a sustainable, predictable additional funding source for our public schools and the 5.5 million students in their classrooms.
We also saw the possibility of STAAR testing and school accountability reform fall short at the Capitol last session. Texas can and should lead with a system that supports holistic school assessment and provides meaningful data to our teachers and parents.
So, how do we get this done?
We can accomplish great things with the strength of a warrior’s heart, humble listening, and a collective commitment to standing up for public education. Those core values guided me as I set out to create the West Texas Alliance. Now in its fifth year, the West Texas Alliance is a vibrant, thriving grassroots community supporting students, teachers, and staff across El Paso, including Socorro ISD, Clint ISD, and Ysleta ISD.
Along the way, I’ve met so many of my fellow El Pasoans and Texans whose backgrounds enrich our chorus of voices in support of public education.
Community and collaboration are also the heart of our Advocacy Core Team at Raise Your Hand Texas. Dotted across our state, these volunteer, nonpartisan teams are a mix of former educators, business owners, faith leaders, community members and parents working arm in arm toward the same goal: supporting our public schools. They’re like you and me.
And our voices matter. At the Texas Capitol this past session, we heard from lawmakers about the importance of educating them on how the bills they write and the votes they cast impact students, teachers, local communities, and our economy.
Our kids and teachers need you. Let’s build something together and advocate for the future of Texas, our public schools.
Rosie Perez of El Paso is the founder and president of West Texas Alliance and a member of Raise Your Hand Texas’s Advocacy Core Team.
The post Opinion: Public education in Texas needs stronger funding and community advocacy now appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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