Hopeful DFW Group Takes Education Message To State Capitol
AUSTIN (CBS 11 NEWS) - Outside the rhetoric-filled hallways of the state capitol, students, parents and school administrators struggled to have their voices heard.
"We've already been managing our budgets, taking away excess things" a Carroll ISD trustee said Thursday, standing in front of a small podium on the south steps of the capitol.
A group of about fifty people listened to the speech. All the listeners came for the same cause. Their message is simple.
"We know the state is facing a huge shortfall in their budget," said Erin Shoupp, Carroll ISD Board President. "But we hope they get the message that protecting education is critical right now."
And the message is echoed on cards written and signed by parents, teachers and students by the thousands.
"The legislature can find other places to cut," read one of the handwritten messages on one of the notes.
The group bused in people from Grapevine, Colleyville and Southlake Carroll ISD. They carried a huge bag stuffed with handwritten cards and they made their speeches to anyone who would listen. They hoped, somehow, the listeners were legislators.
"I know they're in session," said Nancy Vegel, a parent with a child in 10th grade. "They're in committees. They're trying to get numbers down."
So they were surprised when Southlake representative Vicki Truitt emerged from the granite capitol building with a colleague in tow.
"This is Chairman Pitts," Rep. Truitt announced to the people gathering around her. "He chairs the house committee on appropriations. And so, they're the budget writers."
One of the top state budget planners came to tell them in person he wants the state to dip into its savings.
"We have to use the rainy day fund," said Representative Jim Pitts, (R) Waxahachie. "|It was clear, I hope, to everybody on the committee."
"We are so thankful for that," Vegal said. "That just shows they understand, they're hearing us."
The success is a first step, many here say, to lobbying for widespread education financing reform in the near future.
"If not this session, then a special session coming up," said Becky St. John, a Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustee member. "We would really like to prevent the train wreck that we see coming."
