Opinion by: Angie Carraway, Democratic candidate for Texas House District 89
For much of my adult life, I have spent my weekdays in a room full of people who did not choose one another.
Students do not sort themselves by family income, politics, religion, ability or whether their parents agree with one another.
They walk through the same doors because this is their public school.
And when they arrive, we have a responsibility to teach them.
Now beginning my fifteenth year in the classroom, I have come to believe that this is one of the most important things about public education, and one of the things we talk about least.
Public schools are one of the few institutions we have left that truly belong to everyone.
A Promise to Every Child
Public schools are built around a simple promise.
A child lives in our community. That child needs an education. We provide one.
Some students arrive ahead academically. Some arrive years behind.
Some speak English at home. Some are learning it here for the first time.
Some need special education services. Some need counseling. Some need additional academic support. Some are dealing with circumstances outside school that most adults would struggle to handle.
The public school does not get to design the perfect student body.
We teach the students who walk through the door.
That obligation is not a weakness of public education.
It is the point.
Education Is More Than a Transaction
Much of the recent debate over education in Texas has been around individual choice.
I understand why that argument appeals to people. Parents care deeply about finding the best opportunities for their children. They should.
But education policy cannot stop at the question, “What works best for my child?”
State government also has to ask, “What kind of education system works for all of Texas?”
Those are not always the same question. And vouchers aren’t an answer to either.
Private schools and public schools don’t carry the same responsibilities.
Private schools can set their own admissions standards and choose which students to enroll. Public schools can’t. And they shouldn’t. Because they are responsible for educating every child in their communities.
That distinction matters.
When we talk about where public dollars should go, we should also talk about what the public receives in return.
What Public Schools Hold Together
The value of a public school cannot be measured only by a test score.
Schools are where communities meet.
They are where children encounter people whose lives may look very different from their own.
They are where Friday-night football games, school plays, band concerts, parent nights and graduation ceremonies bring entire communities into the same building.
They create relationships across neighborhoods, income levels and backgrounds that might otherwise never form.
That has value beyond academics.
In a country where it is increasingly easy to separate ourselves into groups of people who think like us, vote like us, worship like us and live like us, public schools still ask us to share something.
That is worth protecting.
The Choice Texas Is Making
None of this means public schools are perfect.
I work in one. I know better than most where they fall short.
We should demand better academic outcomes. We should give parents a meaningful voice. We should make schools safer. We should recruit and keep excellent teachers. We should be willing to change programs that are not working.
But improvement and abandonment are not the same thing.
For decades, Texas built its economic growth on communities where families could move in, enroll their children in a strong neighborhood school and know that education was part of the basic infrastructure surrounding them.
We should be very careful about weakening that infrastructure.
Because once a public institution begins to erode, rebuilding it is much harder than maintaining it in the first place.
Something We Still Share
I teach Texas history and civics.
One of the lessons I try to leave with my students is that citizenship requires us to think beyond ourselves.
We live in communities. We inherit institutions built by people before us. And we have some responsibility for what we leave to the people who come after us.
Public education is one of those institutions.
Every morning across Texas, millions of children walk through the doors of public schools.
They bring different abilities, different beliefs, different circumstances and different futures.
And for a few hours, they belong to the same place.
In the Texas we are building, I think that still matters.
Angie Carraway is scheduled to lead a Rally for Public Schools in Allen on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Location
Stephen G. Terrell Rec Center – Cypress Room
1680 W. Exchange Pkwy.
Allen, TX 75013