Mom fights for school choice as means to give students 'the right tools to thrive'

Melissa Bodenger, a full-time mom who spends what spare time she has coordinating Republican candidates for the Travis County GOP, recently gave testimony to the Texas Senate Education Committee regarding school choice.

For her and her special-needs son, school choice is not simply a matter of being more easily able to send her child to a successful public school -- it's a matter of her son being able to succeed in a public school, period.

A snippet of Bodenger's testimony is below. You can read the whole thing here.

... My name is Melissa Bodenger and my 10-year-old son, Josh, is the one in every 42 boys diagnosed with Autism.

In a public school Josh would not be immersed in the [Applied Behavioral Analysis] therapy environment that helps him learn to conquer the challenges of being Autistic.

He would have standardized tests, higher student teacher ratios, and the social stigma of being a special needs child looming over him on the playground. [...]


I ask that you give Texas children the ability to find the right tools that they need to thrive by supporting school choice.

Bodenger was joined at the hearing by many familiar faces -- among them Randan Steinhauser, State Republican Executive Committee member for Senate District 24, Stacy Hock, a strong supporter of school choice initiatives, and several supporters of Texans for Education Opportunity and Americans for Prosperity-Texas.