Hispanic groups at center of voucher debate
Some say Capitol rally participants were misled
By Elizabeth Pierson
The Brownsville Herald
AUSTIN, April 6, 2005 All three of the states highest leaders endorsed school vouchers on Tuesday in front of hundreds of Spanish-speaking participants at a Capitol rally.
But civil-rights groups representing minorities criticized the vouchers and said organizers of the rally misled participants to get them to come by telling them they were advocating for improved schools, not vouchers.
Gov. Rick Perry, House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst pledged their support for school vouchers.
Later, the House Committee on Public Education heard testimony on several bills that would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for private education.
One would launch a pilot program to try vouchers in five metropolitan areas. It could expand to the Rio Grande Valley later, if determined successful.
If parents can chose where to buy their groceries, they should be able to chose where to send their children to school, Perry said.
Children left in the shadows of success should not be left to a second-rate future because struggling schools refuse to change, Perry said.
Rally participants, many of whom were from Austin or who had been bussed to the Capitol from Dallas, chanted in Spanish and held signs with messages such as: Im the superintendent of my house.
Most of them came at the suggestion of Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options, or Hispanic CREO, a group that advocates for school vouchers.
Proponents of vouchers said they force low-performing schools to improve under the pressure of competition.
Jose Esperanza of Dallas is a father of four children who came on one of the busses to support the vouchers. If given the choice, he would send his children to private schools with taxpayer dollars, he said.
Im here because I think Hispanics need a better option to be educated, he said.
Another participant said after the rally that she came thinking she was supporting more funding for public schools, not school vouchers.
She was invited to come by a representative of Hispanic CREO who told the parent-teacher group at her school that the really would be to improve schools, said Teresa Olivas of Austin, a mother of four children.
Olivas said she is happy with the public schools and would not use vouchers to send her children to a private school or another public school.
That would be bad, she said. I think the public schools need more money.
Members of the League of United Latin American Citizens said earlier in the day that Hispanic CREO is funded by conservative groups, including what they called the rabidly anti-immigration, anti-affirmative action Walton Foundation, formed by the owners of Wal-Mart.
Rebecca Acua, a student studying government at the University of Texas at Austin, said Hispanic CREO came to a meeting of Young Immigrants for a Better Future at UT and misled her and others into believing the rally was about improving public education.
They are going to come with a lot of people who dont even know why theyre here, she said of the Republican-led rally for vouchers.
State Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, warned that the idea would begin to ruin public schools and turn education into an entitlement. He said the idea was brought about by wealthy parents in Highland Park, the richest school district in Texas.
Dont ever forget the voucher movement began because a few rich people in Highland Park said, I shouldnt be paying taxes for public school because my kids are in private schools, Raymond said.
epierson@link.freedom.com
