Advocacy Alert! #1 - Tell the Legislature NO to HB 3 and SB 2
Keep Public money in Public schools. Email and call your House Legislators and tell them to vote NO to SB2 (the substutituion for HB3) and NO to ESA's NO to Vouchers. This legislation is going to the House floor for a vote in the next week. - See our Advocacy Page for info.
Welcome to the 2024-2025 LISD Council of PTAs Advocacy Page
We are looking forward to sharing updates with you during the Texas 89th Legislative Session!
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Join us for RALLY DAY at the State Capitol Monday, February 24th, 2025. We hope to see you there! Make sure to fill out this Rally Day Interest Google Form if you plan on attending!
Pre-purchase your delivered Rally Day lunch option (Dominoes) here: https://square.link/u/436Tl17g
Leander ISD Council of PTAs at Rally Day 2025
PTA Legislative Priorities
Texas PTA's Legislative Priorities for the 89th Legislative Session
5 Lead Priorities:
Improve Public School Funding Advocate to increase the basic allotment, fully fund public schools, automatically adjust for cost of living changes, and base funding on enrollment versus attendance.
Resolve Teacher & Staff Shortages Advocate to address teacher and staff shortages and improve retention.
Increase School Safety Advocate to increase funding for school safety and allow local control to determine what additional safety measures are needed in each school district.
Transform School Accountability Advocate to provide a meaningful state-wide school accountability system that more broadly reviews school and district performance, includes a family engagement component, accurately reflects a student's readiness for future success, and opposes outcomes-based funding.
Keep Public Dollars in Public Schools Advocate against diverting public dollars from public schools. All recipients of public dollars should be subject to the same state assessments, accountability, and parental rights.
Suport Priorities:
Reform Student Assessment Support a simplified and improved student performance system with testing alternatives for qualifying students and oppose high-stakes, single-day testing.
Manage Phones at School Support limiting cell phone use during instructional time while allowing local control over the development of additional policies.
Expand Mental Health Support Support the expansion of school mental health programs, improved data collection and accessibility, strengthened telehealth services, and increased mental health awareness.
Address Overdose on Campus Support legislation that addresses drug overdoses on campuses.
Regulate Vaping Support flavor bans, regulations on sales, and a tax on e-cigarette products.
Increase Special Education Resources Support increased special education funding and resources for families.
Monitor Priorities:
Prevent Child & Youth Trafficking Track legislation that promotes awareness, educates children and families on trafficking risks and signs, and expands prevention programs.
Reduce Distracted Driving Track stricter distracted driving legislation to reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes affecting children.
Move Tax-Free Weekend Track opportunities to move the Texas tax-free weekend earlier to better align with the majority of school start dates.
Provide Medically Accurate Sex Education with Parental Opt-Out Track the inclusion of medically accurate information about sex education in 8th grade and higher, and the option for parents to opt-out if they prefer their student not receive that education.
For more information check out the Texas PTA website HERE
Advocacy In Action Local Candidate Forums
Did you know....
Leander ISD Council of PTAs is one of the ONLY Council of PTAs in the state that hosts, moderates, broadcasts and manages their own local candidate forums? Questions are 100% PTA member driven with parents, teachers, students and community members all participating. Our Advocacy Committee vets questions and candidates are given questions in a random order, sight unseen, prior to the event. Our event is student moderated and we utilize one of our local student led and run AV teams for the filming and broadcasting of the event. This ensures that our event is truly about our 1LISD localized issues and concerns WITHOUT generic one size fits all state or national questions many others use that don't quite fit our localized needs.
The Leander ISD Council of PTAs was honored to host the 2024 Candidate Forum for the Leander ISD Board of Trustees the evening of Monday, October 7th. We are incredibly thankful for our fantastic student moderators from the Rouse and Vista Ridge High School debate clubs. We would like to thank the excellent CPHS Broadcast team for recording the candidate forum. We would also like to thank ACC CYP for their unparalleled generosity in allowing us to use their facility for the event. Our Leander ISD PTA members provided the Advocacy Committee with a fantastic selection of submitted questions for our School Board Candidates. What a wonderful display of community working together to help educate Leander ISD voters.
Way to go Leander ISD Council of PTAs!
Advocating for Our Public Schools
At a time when Texas public schools are underfunded by billions of dollars, prioritizing private school subsidies is a move in the wrong direction. We stand united with Leander ISD, Texas PTA and our local PTAs in saying no to vouchers and ESA and yes to investments IN public education such as increased salaries for teachers, enrollment-based funding, increase in basic allotment, updated funding weights, and increase for special education funding to actually cover the cost of providing services.
What can you do?
Write to and call your legislators Tell them that you are opposed to taking $$ AWAY from public schools through Vouchers, ESA, or any other money diverting program. Not sure who your representative is? The Texas Tribune has you covered. Input your address here to see each of your representatives and CALL THEM or WRITE to THEM.
Stay connected Make sure you are receiving up to date information this session by following the Texas PTA "Under the Dome" newsletter. Sign up here for Under the Dome: https://bit.ly/txptanewsletters
Spread the word Use social media to spread the word and follow Texas PTA and the Leander ISD Council of PTAs on Facebook (See the profile logo below). Talk with folks about these realities and share information with them.
Keep advocating for EVERY child so EVERY child has a voice.
Did you know that National PTA was founded by advocates? Advocacy is at the core of our mission — make every child's potential a reality. National PTA is the largest child advocacy organization in our nation. Texas PTA is the largest child advocacy organization in our state, and the second largest in our nation. It is important that we, as a Council, and you, as a Local PTA, work together to educate our communities on important issues and share tools to elevate our membership's voice as parents and advocates.
One of our Basic Principles states that we shall work to engage and empower children, families, and educators within schools and communities to provide quality education for all children and youth, and shall seek to participate in the decision-making process by influencing school policy and advocating for children's issues, recognizing that the legal responsibility to make decisions has been delegated by the people to boards of education, state education authorities, and local education.
Here is a way to contact your local legislator to advocate for children in our area:
Texas-Educators-Vote.pdfNationalPTAAdvocacyFlier.pdf