February 19, 2026 Notes by Walter Coppage
President Cara Sauceda rang the bell and started the meeting at 12:03 pm. Dave Hartman led the invocation with another, outstanding, heartfelt prayer. Cara Sauceda led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance and then helped us lift our voices with “America the Beautiful” in the spirit of honoring President’s Day this week.
Leilani Barnett, a candidate for State Representative District 69, came as a guest of Walter Coppage. Darius Allen and his mom and dad were guests of Rotary as Darius is the Youth of the Month.
The Brag Bucket was busy today and I may have left someone out, so please forgive me. Carla Dowlen is excited that baseball season is starting and she can watch relatives play games in which their team won a scrimmage by a score of 10-1. Cara Sauceda said that David Adams will head up the youth speech event on The Four-Way Test.
Braden Wood introduced Darius Allen, our Youth of the Month. Darius is 14 years old and a student at Hirschi Middle School. Darius is a 3rd generation member of the Boys & Girls Club. He has an interest in starting a vending machine business. Someone can tell him that I know who he can talk to about that. He is an example for the younger members of the Boys & Girls Club.
Benay Ayers presented Mike Seville with a recognition of Paul Harris Fellow plus 2. Carla Dowlen was presented with a recognition of Paul Harris Fellow plus 3.
Alan Donaldson reminded us of a Membership Drive Social later today at 5:30 pm at Taco Darlin located at 4214 Kell West Blvd. Although I was unable to make it, from pictures on Facebook, I could see that there was a great turnout, and I understood that a great time was had by all. The Youth Service Committee met after the meeting.
Josh Phillips then introduced Herb Krasner, CEO of Save Our Public Schools TX to look at where Texas stands with public schools and where we are headed and what we can do to help.
Mr. Krasner started his presentation with the following information:
“…unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government”. TX Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836.
“…it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools” - Texas Constitution, Feb. 15, 1876.
During his presentation, Herb told us that Texas is underfunding public schools by $4,035 per student compared to the national average. He showed us where the local share of school funding is 68% and the State’s share is only 32%, a far cry from where it was ten years ago and where it needs to be (50/50). Herb had a very vivid slide showing that Private Schools have 5 pages of State Rules and Regulations. Texas Charter Schools have 233 pages of State Rules and Regulations. The Texas Education Code for Public Schools is 4,829 pages. So much for efficiency as set forth in the Texas Constitution. Texas has 5,544,255 students attending public schools on 9,084 campuses in 1,208 ISDs. There are 400,000 teachers and staff in public education. Public education in Texas can be better and there are multiple ways to get there. Other states are finding ways to improve public education and Herb discussed several, including bringing back Phonics. Time restraints kept Herb from completing his power point presentation regarding Texas Education Freedom Accounts (School Vouchers) and what that has done to several other state budgets. After finding out from Cara Sauceda that she had many Rotarians ask for Herb Krasner to come back to speak again, I think we will all look forward to Herb Krasner’s next program.
On conclusion of the program, Cara said that there will be a donation made to the WFISD Foundation in the name Herb Krasner and Save Our Public Schools TX.
After the Four Way Test, we adjourned.