Dear #TeamTSTA,
Welcome to the Texas State Teachers Association 146th House of Delegates!
This year’s theme, Power Through Local Organizing: Collective Advocacy, honors the importance of telling our stories as educators and the power of those stories to create the change that we need for our students and our colleagues. We come together at events like these to share our stories and to celebrate all that we do each and every day on behalf of public education.
This year, we are excited to go to the Capitol and share our stories with elected officials but we know that it is not about one day or one event. To turn the hostile anti-public education tide that has rolled over our political landscape, we must continue to organize and have conversations every day about how great our public schools truly are. During this legislative session, many of us have been at the Capitol on various occasions, being vocal about the need for more school funding. We have spoken out on the need for safety for students and educators and on other issues that impact us directly, such as immigration, equity, the educator shortage, gun safety, the need for an accurate and honest education system and so much more. We are speaking up because we see the trauma being inflicted on our students and colleagues.
We have every right to be proud educators who show up for our students and our communities in spite of how the decades of lack of support from the state has impacted them. We need to keep telling our elected officials that this lack of support is the real issue and what truly needs to change in Texas. It is not about diverting money that public schools desperately need to private schools and voucher schemes. Our students are the future of Texas. We must ensure others, not just educators, prioritize them and their future. We do this by building and fostering coalitions for community support and holding elected officials accountable to we, the people. This can only be done by the power of the collective. It will take all of our voices and all of our votes in unison to gain and retain ground in this fight.
As TSTA members, we use our collective power and voice to move the work forward so our students have every opportunity to learn and thrive. We proudly march, rally and protest any and all attacks on our public school students and
educators.
Thank you for everything you’ve done, for everything you do, and for everything you will continue to do in the service of our students, our colleagues, and our communities. The times ahead will demand even more from each and every one of us. It is important to remember that times such as these are only weathered by leaning on the power of the collective to support each other through them and to create better times ahead.
Ovidia Molina, TSTA president