Re: hearing on school choice

[Guest guest]

Liz, way to go! Thank you sooooo much for all of your work on the autism

scholarship and for priming Senator Shapiro on the importance of school

choice for our kids. I wish I could have stayed to hear your testimony.

I agree about the " falling stars " -- utterly disgraceful and embarrassing.

Keep us posted on what we need to do next. It was great to finally meet you

in person!!!

Geraldine

hearing on school choice

What a horrendously long day!

First I want to say, SENATOR SHAPIRO IS A FREAKING ROCK STAR! There

was a point during the invited testimony where it just seemed like

all the opposition to vouchers were talking about was the money,

funding, the dwindling pot of money... and Senator Shapiro stepped

in and said with such power and emotion, that she was tired of

hearing MONEY MONEY MONEY. She said she is first and foremost

concerned about the CHILD. Amen! Then Senator Janek (Houston)

another ROCK STAR, stepped in and spoke to the woman from the Texas

Freedom Network, who is adamantly oppose to what she calls the

" voucher scheme " ... Janek said, " What do I tell my parents who come

to me and say their children are failing in public school? Just hang

in there another 8 or 10 years and we will have it all figured

out???? " There was a lot of pretty heated questions from the

committee to both sides of the " invited " testimony. Senator West

who is against vouchers asked some great questions that were

intelligent and thought provoking. You could tell he was not just

writing off this idea of school choice as a big fat NO, to the

Republican's... He was trying to make sense of all the data and I

believe he wants to do what is right for the children and for TX.

Senator Royce West (Vice Chair) out of Dallas is not quite a ROCK

STAR yet, but he has potential for stardom! Unfortunately among the

shinning STARS, there were some falling stars, both from the Senate

and from House. Not because they were against vouchers but because

they asked some of the most ridiculous questions that actually made

me uncomfortable and EMBARRASSED for the Texas Legislature... Wow,

once again, we really need to know who we vote for...

I was the only one who testified in favor of special needs vouchers/

more specifically autism scholarships. Quite frankly the MAJORITY of

the public testimony at the hearing were from Edgewood, TX where

there is a privately funded voucher program taking place. Remember

this was a hearing on SCHOOL CHOICE AS A WHOLE. Not specifically

special needs vouchers/or autism scholarships... There was however,

someone from Advocacy Inc. who testified in OPPOSITION to special

needs vouchers and Senator Shapiro stepped in and encouraged Advocacy

Inc. to get in touch with her staff and others on this issue because

this one SHE FEELS DEEP IN HER HEART!

All in all, this hearing was just the beginning part of the process.

I am just checking this one off the list and moving onto the next part.

Liz

Oh, my testimony is below...

_________________

There are hundreds of parents who wanted to be here today but can't.

They are home caring for their children with autism. I have brought

with me over 90 letters from these parents and even some public

school teachers who support the idea of bringing autism scholarships

to Texas. It's already working in Ohio. We want you to make

scholarships for children with autism a reality in Texas.

I have already sent you the information on the Ohio Autism

Scholarship Program and have given both the Chair and Vice Chair

another copy of the information today. I am NOT against public

schools. But it is unrealistic for us to expect our public schools to

effectively educate the vast and tremendously diverse needs of every

student with autism.

This is the Individual with Disability Education Act. Over 300 pages

of rules and regulations to help the public schools educate special

needs children. But even with all of this, the holes in autism

education are gigantic. The spectrum of the disorder is too great to

expect any public school to meet the every child's needs.

So what can we do now if the public schools fail in their

responsibility to educate our children? Right now the public schools

have a " my way or the highway " mentality. A parent's only options

are: fight the system, hire a lawyer and spend your precious

resources on lengthy litigation, enroll your child in a private

school, or do the only thing most of us can afford - home school your

child and spend as much as you can on outside services that can step

in where the public schools have failed.

Public education serves a valuable role in our community.

Unfortunately, the schools are ill-equipped to handle the diverse

needs of all the children with autism flooding the system.

Thankfully, many children with autism are doing fine in public

school, but for those, like my son and the children of the parents

who wrote those letters, the need for a real choice is urgent and

desperate.

Thank you,

Liz

Liz

tscillian@...

[Guest guest]

You know I really did not pay attention to his position. Most of

what the opposition said over and over was truly the same old

argument... To tell you the truth by that time I was actually a

little irritated that all of the Senators and State Reps. left except

for Shapiro and Janek. They were the only policy makers who stayed

from the beginning to end and truly showed the public a great deal of

respect by listening to what they had to say. I felt like the folks

who left before the public testimony were rude and disrespectful to

the citizens of TX. Just my opinion...

Liz

tscillian@...