PAC Uses Football to Target Voucher Proposals
photo by: Justin Dehn
October 14, 2012
In a video that ponders potential threats to the viability of high school football, Progress Texas PAC urges Texans to fight plans to institute school voucher programs.
As they prepare for a battle over school vouchers during the next legislative session, a liberal advocacy group is calling attention to a program that few thought was under immediate threat in Texas: high school football.
In a video called “Will Our Friday Night Lights Go Out,” released today — which features actors Aaron Spivey-Sorrells and Jonathan Palafox from the television show Friday Night Lights — Progress Texas PAC urges Texans to fight school voucher programs.
School voucher programs, they argue in the video, could drain as much as $1 billion from local school district funding. With less funding, schools may be forced to end athletic programs or to demand that parents pay to keep them running. That, they say, all means less opportunity for students, particularly those from poor families.
The video specifically targets state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who has championed creating a system that allows
In a video called “Will Our Friday Night Lights Go Out,” released today — which features actors Aaron Spivey-Sorrells and Jonathan Palafox from the television show Friday Night Lights — Progress Texas PAC urges Texans to fight school voucher programs.
School voucher programs, they argue in the video, could drain as much as $1 billion from local school district funding. With less funding, schools may be forced to end athletic programs or to demand that parents pay to keep them running. That, they say, all means less opportunity for students, particularly those from poor families.
"This is part of a larger campaign for public education,” said Glenn Smith, a director of Progress Texas, “but we found the danger to public sports is very real. It hadn't been talked about much in the voucher and charter school debate."
The video specifically targets state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who has championed creating a system that allows