When my son was in 2nd grade, he tried to run away from school. He was just too exhausted by STAAR prep they were already doing to prepare for the 3rd grade tests.
Abbott promised to eliminate the STAAR test but he tripled it and renamed it instead, while kids in private school who get a taxpayer-funded voucher get a pass.
When I’m governor, I’ll get rid of the STAAR test once and for all.
Pitch in $5 now to help me defeat Greg Abbott and end the STAAR test.
This month, millions of Texas students are sitting for the STAAR, a standardized test used to measure how well students are meeting state learning standards in subjects like reading, math, science, and social studies.
Here is what makes me so angry about this standardized test.
Our public school kids are put through a high-stakes testing regime that takes time away from real learning and funnels enormous amounts of taxpayer money to testing vendors. Meanwhile, Greg Abbott is pushing a voucher scheme that sends public dollars to private schools with far less accountability.
In fact, when the voucher bill was moving through the state legislature, I offered a simple amendment. If private schools are going to take taxpayer-funded vouchers, their students should have to take the same STAAR tests as public school students.
Abbott’s allies rejected it.
So Abbott is basically forcing the STAAR test onto 5.5 million public school students, while private schools get taxpayer money and a free pass.
That is not accountability. That’s a two-tier system that protects the well-connected and shortchanges everyone else.
If STAAR is truly the standard Texas should use, then it should apply to every school that takes public dollars. And if it is not, then we should stop using it to punish students, teachers, and neighborhood schools.
When I am governor, we will end the STAAR testing regime as we know it and stop Abbott’s voucher scam from draining resources out of our public schools.
Thank you,
Gina Hinojosa
