YOUR VOICE
The Importance of Keeping Public Education in the Majority
W
e do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” Who would have thought these words— often, and perhaps incorrectly, attributed to Thomas Jefferson—would bear so meaningfully upon our current state of politics here in Texas? The Texas of today wields an outsize influence on American politics, yet even after 200 years of change, the statement still rings true. Simply look at the results of the past two election cycles in Texas.
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BY MARK WIGGINS ATPE Lobbyist
The Old Problem
The 2016 elections proceeded much the same as many before, without much focus on education, so it came as no surprise when the subsequent 2017 legislative session saw the same tired attacks on educators. Lawmakers passed a budget that continued a decade-long decline in the state’s share of overall funding for public education. Outside of presidential election years, relatively few people show up to vote in Texas elections—a circumstance that has historically allowed small groups of highly motivated people to have a significant impact on state policy. More than 700,000 Texans work for a school or school district—not many people’s definition of a “small” group. And though educators are definitely a “highly motivated” group in most every regard, traditionally they have not shown up to the polls in great numbers. With so few educators exercising their right to vote, and as long as the majority of voting Texans have little interest in public education, why would legislators have any incentive to pay attention to schools and educators? Following the challenges of the 2017 legislative session, some public education supporters began to circulate a new hypothesis based on simple math: If enough educators turned out in the next round of elections, could they make a difference in key races and ultimately alter state-level public education policy? After years of being ignored and abused, educators tested this theory in 2018 by banding together with parents, school board trustees, and other 18 ATPE NEWS
public education supporters to maximize their influence. They made public education their priority issue and spearheaded get-out-the-vote initiatives across the state in both the primary and general elections. (For more on this story, see page 20.) The result: Voters booted a slew of anti-public education lawmakers out of office—and gave those who narrowly survived reelection a scare they won’t soon forget. With pro-public education legislators in the driver’s seat and newly energized education voters paying close attention, the 2019 legislative session focused on increasing school funding and teacher pay. This marked a massive shift in the way public education had been prioritized in the Texas Capitol, yet it was still accomplished by a relatively small amount of people. Texas is home to about 29 million people today. Nearly 20 million Texans were of voting age during the March 2018 primary elections, and about 15 million of those were registered voters. However, only 1.5 million actually voted in the Republican primary, and 1.1 million others voted in the Democratic primary, which means the crucial 2018 primary elections were decided by just 9% of Texans. Because Texas is heavily gerrymandered, most elections to the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate are decided in the March primaries. That means the membership of the Texas Legislature—and by extension the Legislature’s agenda—was determined in large part by just one in 10 Texans. One in 10! Those who participated in the 2018 elections sent a clear message: Legislators had to stop attacking educators and get serious about funding public education. Legislators responded by passing House Bill (HB) 3, an $11.6 billion bill that added $6.5 billion to the public education system and ordered districts to spend a portion of that new money on increasing educator compensation.
Now We Have a Different Problem
Under HB 3, the Legislature required school districts to spend 30% of any increase in their state funding on increased educator compensation. Of
