As the 2017 legislative session churned into action, then-state Sen. Don Huffines went to a meeting with parents and students visiting the Capitol for the annual PTA Rally Day. Things quickly grew testy.
One of the students, from Richardson ISD in Huffines’ North Texas Senate district, questioned the tea party Republican about his support for a proposal to offer taxpayer-funded stipends for parents to send their kids to private schools. The money wouldn’t be enough, the student argued, for low-income families to cover the cost of tuition. Huffines snapped.
“Do you want me to give them $15,000? Is that what you want?” Huffines asked the kid. “You want to give them a full tuition? That is the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard.”
