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Parent Empowerment advocates outline "transparency, quality, respect, choice" and mobilize supporters
Summary
At a Parent Empowerment Night in San Antonio, advocates including Mandy Drogan of Next Generation Texas described four pillars for their movement—transparency, quality, respect and choice—citing classroom content concerns and urging constituent pressure on legislators.
Parent-advocates at San Antonio Christian School laid out the Parent Empowerment Movement's priorities and urged grassroots mobilization to support an education savings-account proposal.
Mandy Drogan, campaign director of Next Generation Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the crowd the movement rests on four pillars: "transparency, quality, respect, and choice." She cited a recent social-media clip she said involved Houston ISD and described parental concern about classroom content, library books and "identity politics." Drogan said parents should "know what they are learning in their classroom and why they are learning it."
On quality, Drogan cited an audit she summarized as finding that "just 19% of the curriculum in our classrooms is on grade level," and she said about "50% of the children" cannot read on grade level. She framed these figures as evidence that reforms and alternatives are needed for students who are not being served.
Drogan also described parents' experiences seeking redress with local officials—sometimes feeling shut out of meetings or told to "find somewhere else to go"—and argued education savings accounts would let families move to alternatives without being constrained by income.
The event closed with calls to action: Drogan and lawmakers urged attendees to contact representatives, use social media and counter lobbying by education associations. Drogan warned of a school-board association conference and said organizers were prepared to press their case at the Capitol.
Drogan's claims about curriculum and a viral Houston ISD clip were stated without documentary evidence in the transcript; the claims were repeated by speakers as justification for policy but were not independently verified at the event.
