AUSTIN, Texas — Glennda Hardin awoke before sunrise and drove an hour from Temple to the state Capitol, her prepared speech folded neatly in her handbag. Hardin, a 73-year-old retired teacher, had never done anything like this before, she said. But once she’d heard what Republican legislators had planned for the state’s education system, she knew she had to come speak her mind.
All that money — meant for public schools like the ones she taught at for three decades — going to pay for private school tuition. “I really believe the future of our schools is at stake,” Hardin said. Her hands trembled in the back of a committee room Wednesday as she clutched the paper, waiting for her chance to testify as the minutes stretched to hours and one hour bled into the next
Hardin was among hundreds of educators, parents, school officials and activists who came to sound off about a slate of bills that would fundamentally reshape the state’s education system in response to conservative grievances over the ways public schools address racism, history and LGBTQ inclusion.
The centerpiece of the package, Senate Bill 8 — dubbed The Texas Parental Bill of Rights by its GOP authors — would give parents who want to pull their children out of public school $8,000 a year to cover home-schooling expenses or private school tuition. Those who chose to keep their children in public schools would be granted new oversight over what students were taught and what books they could access. The 53-page bill also includes a provision, similar to one adopted a year ago in Florida, that would prohibit public schools from providing instruction or activities “regarding sexual orientation or gender identity” at all grade levels.
Gov. Greg Abbott has thrown his enthusiastic support behind the legislative package, arguing that the changes are needed to protect children from being indoctrinated with a “woke agenda” in Texas public schools.
Perla Muñoz Hopkins, a mother who leads…
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