Establishing education opportunity through SB 2 / HB 253
The TCCB supports parental choice and we applaud Senator Taylor and Representative Simmons for honoring a parents’ right to choose the best education for their children. Their bills, SB 2 and HB 253, both recognize that parents are the primary educators of a child, and provide opportunities for special education children who have the greatest academic and financial need.
In Amoris Laetitia, [1] Pope Francis wrote in support of parental choice. His writing animates the position of the TCCB on this issue and is worth quoting at length:
"I feel it important to reiterate that the overall education of children is a 'most serious duty' and at the same time a 'primary right' of parents. This is not just a task or a burden, but an essential and inalienable right that parents are called to defend and of which no one may claim to deprive them. The State offers educational programs in a subsidiary way, supporting the parents in their indeclinable role; parents themselves enjoy the right to choose freely the kind of education – accessible and of good quality – which they wish to give their children in accordance with their convictions. Schools do not replace parents, but complement them. This is a basic principle: 'all other participants in the process of education are only able to carry out their responsibilities in the name of the parents, with their consent and, to a certain degree, with their authorization.'” [2]
SB 2 and HB 253 rightly recognize both the proper role of parents and the proper role of the state. The TCCB encourages the Texas Legislature to also adopt this view.
[1] Amoris Laetitia is an apostolic exhortation, which is a type of communication from the Holy Father which encourages people of good will to undertake a particular activity.