Strengthening Public Schools
Public education for all is a core democratic value, making the American dream a reality for our children. Yet this pillar of American life is under assault by coordinated efforts to undermine quality standards and siphon funding from neighborhood schools.
The Texas Freedom Network leads the fight against private school vouchers,
textbook censorship and other efforts to undermine public education.
Join TFN's Strengthening Public Schools Rapid Response Team.
Sex Education
Texas has one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation. Yet ignorance-based, abstinence-only policies dominate instruction in public schools about the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy. The Texas Freedom Network supports sex education that emphasizes the importance of abstinence while also providing medically accurate information about responsible pregnancy and disease prevention that helps teens make important life decisions.
Learn more
Vouchers
The Texas Freedom Network supports fully funding our state’s public
schools. Vouchers are a controversial proposition to use tax dollars to
fund tuition at private and religious schools. Vouchers would drain
money from our public schools.
Learn more
Textbook Censorship
The Texas Freedom Network works to ensure that students have access
to up-to-date, factual instructional materials that are based on
unbiased information and research. For decades censors on and off the State Board of
Education have targeted Texas textbooks, raising political and
ideological objections on topics ranging from sex education to
evolution.
Learn more about textbook censorship
Learn more about the State Board of Education
Charter Schools
Promising innovation and student achievement, the Legislature created
charter schools in 1995 as an experiment in deregulating and
privatizing public schools. Instead, the number of academically and
financially failing charter schools has far outpaced the number of
successful, stable charter schools.
Learn more
School Privatization
The Texas Freedom Network supports the use of innovative technology
and teaching methods that help schoolchildren succeed in our
neighborhood public schools. Taking tax dollars away from our public
schools to fund for-profit education companies, however, is too risky
for our schoolchildren. Many of those private companies have far better
political connections than they do track records for academic
performance.
Learn more
Local Control/Home Rule
The Texas Freedom Network affirms the crucial reforms and progress
made by Texas public schools since the mid-1980s. Standards such as
small class sizes, teacher certification and strong accountability
measures have helped our state’s students succeed. Deregulation measures
called “local control” or “home rule” would threaten that progress by
erasing these and other quality education standards.
Learn more