Plainview ISD trustee describes TASB advocacy trip, warns of potential impacts from educational savings accounts

Trustee Sylvia Dela Garza said she joined other trustees in Austin to meet with legislators and TASB staff on March 13 to advocate for Plainview ISD students and to learn how pending bills could affect the district.

"House Bill 3 is the one that's ESA, and that's called the educational savings account," Trustee Sylvia Dela Garza said. "To me, it's a . . . we call it the billionaires' trust fund." She summarized the benefit levels discussed at TASB sessions as about $2,000 for some families not enrolled in private school and roughly $10,000–$11,000 for those enrolled in private schools, as she reported the figures during her board report.

Gist of the trip: why it matters. The trustee said TASB provided a legislative update, including status on the 89th legislative session and specific bills affecting public education. She and other trustees received instruction on how to meet with legislators and relay district priorities; she said legislators tend to listen when trustees visit their offices.

Details from the presentation. Dela Garza said TASB director Dax Gonzalez and current and former lawmakers briefed trustees on the bills and taught trustees to prepare concise, evidence-based messages for office visits. She described hearing differing perspectives from speakers in Austin: one speaker portraying vouchers as inevitable and another—Representative James Talarico, she reported—urging continued advocacy against vouchers.

Dela Garza emphasized several concerns she raised while advocating: that large voucher-like educational savings accounts could reduce funding for public schools, enable private schools to select students (potentially excluding students with higher needs), and increase homeschooling in ways that could shift underprepared students back onto public campuses later. She said her advocacy included asking legislators for discretionary funding rather than time-limited money that would create pay cliffs for teachers once short-term allocations end.

On scale and constituency. Dela Garza said she represented Plainview ISD but also advocated on behalf of students in nine counties and 27 smaller schools she serves through other work, and she encouraged trustees to use stories and evidence, not arguments, when meeting legislators.

What the board record shows. Dela Garza’s report was delivered during the trustees’ reports portion of the March 13 meeting; no formal action or vote resulted from the report itself. The board did not take a position on specific bills during the meeting.

Looking ahead. Dela Garza encouraged trustees and community members to contact legislators and to continue advocacy based on factual, campus-level examples about how proposals might affect students, special education services and staffing.