Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently attended a rally in Odessa to voice his support for increasing school choice options for parents. 

According to a press release, Abbott recently garnered support from more than 300 Texas parents, students, educators and parent empowerment advocates in favor of increasing education freedom and increasing school choice options at the Parent Empowerment Night held at First Odessa Christian Academy on March 23. During the event, he called on Texans to voice their support for education freedom by contacting their local legislators. 

“It does not matter what city you live in, parents are in charge of their children's education,” Abbott said, according to the press release. “The reality is that not every school has the flexibility to meet the unique needs of every student. We as a state have an obligation to ensure that every child’s needs are met, and we do that by empowering parents to choose the education setting that is best for their child. Our job is to make sure school choice and education freedom becomes a reality. Together, we will ensure parents remain the primary decision-makers in the education of their child for generations to come.” 

Abbott emphasized that legislation to expand parental choice in education has broad support from rural, urban and suburban Texans. He also pointed out that he has authorized more funding for public education than any governor in Texas history and added that public schools will continue to remain fully funded under his plan to expand state-funded education savings accounts (ESA) to every Texas student. 

The event was hosted by the Parent Empowerment Coalition. Abbott was joined by Sen. Kevin Sparks, Texas Public Policy Foundation Campaign Director Mandy Drogin, First Odessa Christian Academy Interim Head of School Byron McWilliams and other parent empowerment advocates.