TOWNHALL TENSION: State reps booed off stage during education meeting

PALESTINE, Texas (KETK) – East Texas State Rep. Cody Harris ended a Q&A session one hour early on Friday night after he warned the audience to be respectful.

Harris, who represents Palestine in the Texas State House, was holding a town hall at Palestine High School in order to answer questions about his education policy push in Austin.

He’s pushing for bills meant to better educate Texas children and to create more opportunities for our teachers. Harris talked to parents about his initiatives, but the set two-hour long meeting only lasted half that time.

It was intense from the very beginning. There were school choice protestors outside and educators yelling throughout the evening.

Harris was joined by the author of the school choice bill, Representative Brad Buckley of Salado.

Anytime Rep. Buckley would explain a fact in House Bill 3, he was met with loud comments, yelling and questions from the audience. Harris gave one warning and became fed up.

People had already started leaving before Harris ended the meeting one hour early and walked off the stage. One Palestine ISD principal was upset she didn’t hear from the man she voted for.

“Mr. Buckley, who does not represent Anderson County, answered,” Grace Mancilla, principal of A. M. Story Intermediate in Palestine said.

Harris said he wanted to bring the author of the townhall to explain HB3 in more detail. He explained that the point of the town hall was to explain the pieces of legislation to help rural East Texas public schools.

House Bill 2 will invest over $7.6 billion into public education including a significant portion for teacher pay raises.

House Bill 4 would eliminate the STAAR test and Harris said House Bill 6 would expand disciplinary measures to “foster a respectful and conducive learning atmosphere, encouraging more professional to join and remain in the teaching profession.”

“In my entire district where I’ve got over 30 public school days, I have one private school that is accredited. The rest are not. None of those other private schools right now would even be eligible for the ESA’s. The vast majority of what we’re talking about tonight is what we’re doing to benefit our local public schools,” Harris said.

One Palestine ISD parent believes the money taken away from public schools and it will hurt her daughter’s education.

“Teachers do deserve to get higher pay, higher funding and I want my taxes to go towards teachers getting a better pay so my daughter can get a better education. I don’t want my taxes going to the hands of the wealthy,” Palestine ISD parent, Lauren Jones said.

If parents are still worried, Harris encouraged anyone who is willing to reach out to his office.