Houston families gather in Austin to raise awareness for expanding school choice options

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Thousands of people are planning to come together in Austin to rally for school choice, and many of them are families and educators from Houston.

About 100 families from YES Prep - Crenshaw will be traveling to the state capital Tuesday morning to let lawmakers know they want more money and a say in where their kids go to school.

It's all part of the Texas School Choice Rally, which has been held for five years in conjunction with the National School Choice Week. The goal of NSCW is to raise public awareness of all types of education options for children.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is expected to introduce bills that would create savings accounts for parents who want to send their kids to private schools and also create state issued debit cards that parents could use to pay for private school tuition.

"We do a lot of fundraising for our kids. We do have to pay for our uniforms. We have to pay for our books that they use for school," parent Celina Moreno said.

Meanwhile, those who are opposed to the idea say that private schools are not accountable to taxpayers the way public schools are and that using money for private schools hurts already cash strapped public schools.

The rally starts at 10am at the state capitol and is open to the public.