Our mission is to educate, engage, and activate Texans through public education policy and advocacy.
In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of Texas business and community leaders founded Raise Your Hand Texas with the belief that all Texas children should have equal access to high-quality education. Raise Your Hand Texas supports public policy solutions that invest in our students, encourage innovation and autonomy, and improve college, military, and workforce readiness.
Our statewide advocacy team works in communities throughout the state to raise the voices of parents, teachers, community leaders, business owners, and students who care about the future of public education. Our advocacy work and your voices, alongside current research, inform the policy recommendations we make to Texas lawmakers.
Our History
In 2006, Charles Butt and a group of engaged citizens founded Raise Your Hand with a belief that public dollars should stay in public schools. At the time, the group recognized that Texas public education, an essential investment offered to all Texas families and their children, was under attack by those who sought to dismantle this constitutionally guaranteed public good.
Where We Stand Today: Seven Policy Priorities
Today, Raise Your Hand Texas continues to fight for Texans’ right to a free, high-quality public school experience for every child. To support this, we have established seven core policy priorities that guide our long-term work across Texas and at the Texas Capitol, strengthening and supporting public schools in Texas.
RAISE YOUR HAND TEXAS APPROACHES THIS VITAL WORK WITH FIVE VALUES IN MIND: INTEGRITY, DEMOCRACY, COURAGE, EQUITY, AND PRAGMATISM.
Seven Core Policy Priorities for Raise Your Hand Texas
- Money Matters in Education
- Teachers Make the Difference
- Student Growth and Performance Should Be Measured Fairly
- Serving the Whole Child Promotes Learning
- Prepared Students Ensure a Brighter Future for Our State
- Public Dollars Must Remain in Public Schools
- Texas Families Deserve an Equal Playing Field
Our current legislative policy recommendations are focused on school funding, teacher workforce and retention issues, fully funding pre-Kindergarten, and assessment and accountability initiatives.
In the 89th Texas Legislative Session, we will look to:
- Increase the state’s overall investment in our public school students and in public education programs, including creating an increase to the basic allotment – the building block for per-student funding in Texas;
- Support teacher retention through increased compensation and benefits packages, adequate administrative support, and sustainable work environments, while also investing in teacher recruitment strategies, including funding scholarships for aspiring teachers;
- Expand the Early Education Allotment to include eligible pre-Kindergarten students and directly fund pre-Kindergarten with full-day Average Daily Attendance (ADA), versus the current half-day ADA; and,
- Recommend the removal of all high-stakes testing consequences for students, and also expand the scope of Texas’ A-F accountability ratings system to include factors beyond STAAR test scores.
We also still believe vouchers are bad policy for Texas and Texans should look at other states and learn from their mistakes.
For a full overview of our 89th Texas Legislative Session Policy Recommendations, visit the Resources section of our website.
