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.

 

Description of SB 2 / HB 253

 

[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.

[2] Amoris Laetitia, #84.