Updated, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 11:11am:
The Save Texas Schools rally has been moved to the First United Methodist Church Family Life Center due to weather concerns. The date and time remain the same.

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It’s gonna be a big rally. The only question is how big.

“I’m hoping we have at least 3,000 people there,” Allen Weeks of local nonprofit Austin Voices for Education and Youth told us. “But I’d love there to be 13,000 people, or even more. And we’re working around the state to get people revved up.”

The rally Weeks is revving people up for – the Save Texas Schools Rally – happens Saturday, Feb. 22. Parents, students, and lovers of public education will converge on the Capitol at 11am to hear speeches and pressure lawmakers to increase funding for the state’s neglected public education system.

Public school advocates like Weeks are acutely aware that state lawmakers haven’t increased school funding since 2019. In the ensuing six years, inflation has significantly lowered the buying power of the money they are appropriated. A Statesman analysis found that, adjusted to 2024 dollars, per-student funding from state and local sources is down by 12.9%. Weeks pointed out that districts across the state, including many in Central Texas, are facing budget deficits. Austin ISD recently announced that its ongoing deficit has deepened from $92 million to $110 million. Eanes ISD just voted to close schools – they’ve got a $6 million budget deficit. Leander ISD’s $34 million deficit is compelling it to lay off teachers.

For the last month, Weeks has been lining up buses to bring in groups from outside Central Texas to demand more money for schools. About 10 buses from around the state will bring groups from Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, and potentially Waco.

Weeks said that U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett will deliver remarks at the rally, along with lawmakers Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico. School superintendents, teachers, parents, and students will speak. There will be groups representing school employees – the American Federation of Teachers, the Texas Association of School Boards, and Education Austin. And there will be grassroots groups – Texans for Public Education, Fund Schools First, and the Austin Council of PTAs.

Daphne Hoffacker, advocacy chair of the Austin Council of PTAs, is promoting the rally in emails, social media, and talks at area schools. She stresses that state lawmakers have plenty of money to fund public education this session, just as they did last session. In January, the comptroller announced a $24 billion surplus in the general revenue fund and another $28 billion in the Rainy Day Fund. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently declared, however, that the state doesn’t have enough money for a substantial bump.

“They say that the state is too poor to even keep up with inflation,” Hoffacker said. “And it’s offensive. It’s frustrating. It’s also disconcerting, because these are the people responsible for the future of our children. They are the leaders whose sole job is the welfare of the people in this state. And I would say that they have been derelict in their responsibilities to our children, and we just keep letting them off the hook. We have the money!”

As Patrick questions whether the money is there, he and Gov. Greg Abbott are pushing relentlessly for the creation of a new government entitlement – a school voucher program they call “education savings accounts.” The program would allow parents to take money out of local schools to spend on private, usually religious, schools. If passed, the plan would cost taxpayers $1 billion in its first two years but serve only 100,000 students – less than 2% of the 5.4 million kids who currently attend public schools. The state’s own researchers predict that if the plan becomes law the $1 billion price tag will balloon to $5 billion by 2029.

Donald Trump recently praised Patrick and Abbott for pursuing the voucher plan. He has long criticized the U.S. Department of Education, and his administration is reportedly crafting an executive order to abolish it, though such a unilateral action would be unconstitutional. Allen Weeks reminded us that some Texas schools receive 10% or more of their funding from the Department of Education. He hopes the Save Texas Schools Rally will help attendees connect the dots.

“The importance of the rally grows day by day,” Weeks said, “because I really feel like what’s happening in Washington and what is happening in Texas are very much aligned – this blatant withholding of funding from public education. Obviously, there’s a long game here of gradually reducing the viability of public schools. And it’s being funded by billionaires, both within and outside of Texas.

“So the rally is about Texas, but it’s also about what’s going on nationally. And the only thing we can do right now is stand up and say, ‘No, this is not America. This is not Texas. This is not where we want to go.’”