IDEA parents flock to Austin for charters' future

The wind chill in Austin made it feel like temperatures were lower than the 20s, but Angela Oaks, a McAllen mother of four, refused to budge from the state Capitol steps on Wednesday.

She joined more than 1,000 other Texas parents who rallied before the Legislature in order to preserve the one institution they feel saved their children’s futures: charter schools.

“My husband is a high school teacher, and three of my kids have gone through McAllen’s school system,” said Oaks, whose youngest daughter got into IDEA College Preparatory in San Juan. “She would not get the quality education she deserves anywhere else.

“I got up at 4 o’clock this morning to head north,” she said. “Yes, I’m serious about the future of IDEA.”

A fleet of buses carried her and 200 other IDEA parents from the Rio Grande Valley to throw their voice into the Texas Charter School Association Parent Day Rally.

Despite the brisk winds, the mass of parents converged in front of the Capitol building and then shared their message with any and every legislator they could find, Oaks said.

“We were definitely not quiet walking around those hallways,” she said. “To see all the parents, it just shows there’s a lot of support for charters and that my decision was the right one.”

Almost every day, lobbyists and concerned citizens descend upon the Legislature, demanding attention for their particular cause and begging to be spared from cuts. But David Dunn, executive director of the Texas Charter Schools Association, saw a difference for the viability of his group.

“We’ve got some proposals, especially around the facilities issue, that would be of little or no cost to the state,” Dunn said. “I think the parents’ voices were definitely loud (and) showed charters create fits for unique, individual student needs that just frequently aren’t available anywhere else.”

He hopes to gain access to the state’s Permanent School Fund, a program that lends the full faith and credit of the state behind traditional public schools when they seek construction bond debt. Charter schools currently cannot rely on that firm financial standing and have difficulty finding banks that will lend to them.

“We’ve got at least 40,000 … students on (charter schools’) waiting lists,” Dunn said. “It’s critical that we remove the obstacles for charter school growth to be able to meet that demand.”

More than 13,000 students sit on the waiting list for IDEA. And as she sat on the bus ride back home, Oaks said she fought for those children, too.

“The only way to get that waiting list down is to build more IDEA campuses in the Valley,” she said. “No matter what people say, these opportunities need to be out there for every child and parent who wants them.”

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956)683-4472.