Football and other high school sports and activities unite Texas communities, enrich our kids, and create lifelong memories in ways that nothing else can.
But if Greg Abbott gets his way, Friday Night Lights in Texas will go out – forever.
Abbott’s billionaire-backed private school voucher scheme will shrink public school enrollment. He wants to take the air out of high school football, basketball, and other competitive sports. Marching bands won’t march, and their buses won’t roll. Competitive drill teams, cheer squads, and choirs will stay home too.
Drew Sanders, president of the Texas High School Coaches Association and coach of the 2024 state-champion Vandergrift football team, laid it out:
“They make movies about Texas football,” Sanders said. “One of the reasons Texas is the gold standard… is because of the way it’s based around the local community. When you take that away… you have just eliminated, in its entirety, community-based athletics.”
Under Abbott’s scheme, money our public schools need for coaches, trainers, travel, equipment, and safe facilities will disappear into the pockets of greedy voucher vendors and private school academies.
Over-fed and over-funded private school super teams will entertain Greg Abbott’s deep-pocket donors while small-town Texas public school competition and tradition will become faded pages in old yearbooks.
For Friday Night Lights to keep burning and the rich tradition of Texas public school competition to live, Greg Abbott’s greedy private school voucher scheme must die.
Matt Angle is the Director of the Lone Star Project. Prior to founding the Lone Star Project, Angle spent over 20 years as a congressional staff member, during which he served as Chief of Staff to former Texas Congressman Martin Frost, Director of the US House Democratic Caucus, and Director of the US Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
