A Lifeline for Schoolchildren

By Gary Ashwill / May 24, 2005

The Texas legislature isn't all bad; in what the San Antonio News-Express (reg req'd) called "a stunning rejection of the Republican leadership's wishes," a bill to establish one of the most extensive school vouchers system in the country was just defeated. The News-Express quoted Republican legislator Carter Casteel (New Braunfels) on her opposition to vouchers:
 

"We are not funding textbooks for schools. How on earth can we fund a program like this?" she charged in an emotional discussion that several times turned into a screaming match with fellow Republicans who favored the bill.

"This might send me home," she said, referring to possible opposition from within her party next election cycle, "but our job here is to throw a lifeline to schoolchildren, not some of them, but all of the schoolchildren of Texas, and we have failed to do that."

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