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Inside Texas Politics | Full interview with state Rep. Brian Harrison

State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, discusses his ideas for school vouchers, which he says is on the verge of passing.

WFAA

4 days ago

representative good to see you again here Tom oliverson announced he is going to run for the speakership of the Texas house what will he have to do do you think to convince a majority of Republicans to get behind him well it's really fascinating my biggest take away from seeing this announcement is that the Grassroots are absolutely destroying the liberal uni party establishment that has been controlling the Texas house for far too long we know we now have literally members of Dade felin's own l
eadership team saying that Dade felin's leadership team was a disaster and that we are no longer going to have Democrat committee chairs Democrat parliamentarians that's of course the new Baseline now for us the Republican voters across the state of Texas they spoke loudly and clearly in last week's primaries and the establishment has no choice uh but to recognize that and I think that's the biggest takeaway out of this announcement is that the Grassroots conservatives are beating the liberal es
tablishment who would you like to see run for that position anybody else we we've got a long time to go there will be a lot of people jump into this race I'm far less concerned Jason with any individual name right now what I am focused on and what I believe to be the number one priority of conservatives across Texas is fundamental wholesale reform of the Texas house from what it has been which is a liberal dictatorial body where far-left Progressive Democrats have been put in power and in charge
uh of conservative Republicans meaning that voters of Texas through their elected conservative members have not had their voice heard they it has not been the people's body for far too long along anybody who thinks that simply saying let's get rid of democrat committee chairs or democrat parliamentarians that's enough does not understand the times that we're in let's get into what happened on super Tuesday Governor Abbott was not on the ballot of course he was the big winner though uh really ge
tting candidates who support school choice elected the governor now saying what we're we're that he's two points or or two votes away now from getting School vouchers passed do do you think that the two votes is uh remaining two votes are going to finally come around for him I think they will uh and I think Governor Abbott deserves a lot of credit for his leadership on the issue of school choice in fact I've been very proud to travel the state with him doing something that perhaps is unprecedent
ed campaigning against um so-called Republicans in the Texas house in favor of their more conservative Challengers who will put parents who will commit to putting parents in charge of their kids education so I've been traveling the state with Governor Greg Abbot with Ted Cruz with attorney general cam Paxton campaigning to elect real movement conservatives who will finally respect the wishes of their voters back home we've got I think eight or nine of the anti-school choice Republicans that were
either taken out or pushed into runoffs we've got I think eight runoffs coming up I am I am committed to helping many of those Challengers defeat their liberal incumbents we are going to make the Texas house Republican again do vouchers pass in 2025 I believe parents will be put in charge of their kids education in the state of Texas uh for the first time in 2025 but quite frankly Jason this should have happened a generation ago the liberal teacher unions have convinced so many people in both p
arties that this is some novel extreme idea there's nothing novel or extreme this is the most common sense Pro Liberty idea ever to let parents who know the needs of their kids be the ones who decide what school environment is best for them Texas will finally pass uh school choice I wish we had been leading on education Freedom we haven't but I think it's time for us to make up for it not just by passing it but for going all the way to the front of the line Texas should make up for by for being
slow to school choice by being bold I want every family who wants education savings account every family who wants school choice every single Texas parent to choose where to put every one of their children in the state of Texas that's my goal next session Governor Abbott proposed last session $10,000 per child uh per year which is larger than the allotment for uh for public school districts should that money come with strings attached for accountability so the ultimate accountability is with the
parents anybody who says that private or parochial schools right now don't have accountability is just lying to you they have the ultimate accountability because parents can walk away if the schools aren't serving the needs of their children this is a program that will help the poor economically disadvantaged parents who want nothing more than to give their beautiful children an education but they're trapped in schools where they're subjected to bullying to to far-left Marxist propaganda and wo
rst of all that's not even teaching them the fundamentals of reading and writing and arithmetic and history I'm trying to give Governor Abbott is trying to give Ted Cruz movement conservatives Across America want every Texas Family to have the chance to give their child a quality education what kind of school choice bill would you get behind I mean there there's all kinds that are going to be on the table next year what what amount what would you be looking for I want one that is universal I bel
ieve every parent you and and and let me tell you why Jason I firmly believe that every child deserves a quality education and I say this to somebody who is a proud Public School parent myself I've got four young kids they attend local public schools my dad is a local public school board member the private schools the charter schools uh the uh homeschoolers and uh the public schools everybody would be improved by letting competition do in education what it does in every sector of our economy whe
re overtime quality goes up um and costs go down we could do this in a way that's fully truly Universal we could save taxpayer monies and we could Empower every parent to choose where their child attend and let me tell you what every state that's tried this we have improved outcomes for students parents are empowered teacher salaries uh go up it's good for teachers people often overlook this um and it improves the local public schools if you are pro-public schools if you want what governor Abbot
t wants what I want for Texas public schools to be the best in America the only correct position is to support education freedom and school choice are you going to use that money to send your kids to private schools I haven't even thought about that question listen my goal right now we've got 6.2 million uh school children in the state of Texas what I care about is that every parent has the choice to send them to a public school my wife and I I will tell you right now we voluntarily send our chi
ldren to our local public schools because we are blessed to live in an area where I can send them to a public school and count on them getting a quality education but not every Texan uh is that true for and in fact I will shock you with this only 24% of Texas 8th graders are proficient in reading only 23% of Texas 8th graders are proficient in mathematics so people who want to trap kids in failing schools they are responsible for those children uh beautiful children who deserve a bright and pros
perous future they're responsible for trapping them in those schools where they're not getting a quality education I'm blessed to live somewhere where my kids can get a quality education I want public schools to be Texas public schools to be the best in America but what's most important is that it's parents that get to be the one who decides where to send their children to school and by the way the voters of Texas agreed to me that might have been the biggest issue on the ballot in last Tuesdays
or Tuesday ago primary election parents across the state stood up and said they are sick and tired of not just Democrats but Liberal Republicans being more beholden to Liberal teacher unions than they are to them they want to have a choice and they want to have a say of where their kids go to school based on election results we saw on super Tuesday that the Republican party of Texas is moving further to the right what do you think the next legislative session is going to look like I I don't thi
nk I agree with your characterization I think Texas are conservative Texans believe in Liberty they believe in Freedom they believe in Secure borders they want their state government standing up to a tyrannical autocontrol government uh under Joe Biden's Administration in Washington DC and unfortunately the state of Texas we have a reputation for for doing that but far too many times we have not been living up to that reputation that's primarily because of the Liberal Republicans who control the
Texas house who tell their voters things like next session though let's look ahead 2025 what do you think things will look like next session though well I can tell you I'm going to spend every day between now and next session laying the groundwork I want us to go from what was I believe the most liberal session in the history of the Texas house to the most Pro Liberty session in the Texas house I want freedom I want bureaucrats to be disempowered I want strong border security legislation I want
taxes getting under control we haven't done anything to get spending under control we need to pass Republican priorities like school choice and we need to do more as a state to stand out to the tyrannical unconstitutional overreaches of the federal government that's my agenda wholesale reform of the Texas house we have got to make the Texas house Republican again where do you see common ground with minority party with Texas Democrats there are lots of areas where we can find common ground where
we both want to advance the cause of Liberty and and and I have done this I have joint authored legislation with some of the most liberal Democrats in the Texas house when I believe the legislation would Advance the cause of Liberty but being bipartisan does not mean you have to put the other team in charge it would be quite literally the the same as if speaker Mike Johnson made Nancy Pelosi or AOC a powerful committee chair in DC no Republican in America would stand for that but that's what's
been happening in the Texas house for decades Republican voters have been sold out behind their backs in closed door meetings um in Austin Texas where they you know Republicans campaign for office telling their voters they're going to fight for cons conservatism but then when they get elected they cut deals with Democrats and collude with them to destroy Liberty that day is done Texas voters have spoken they've had enough and we're going to take over the Texas house and we're going to fundamenta
lly reform it and make it representative of the freedom loving Texans and give them finally the government that they deserve representative we appreciate the time as always thank you always great to talk to you uh Jason

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