The Texas Aggie Democrats and the Texas A&M College Republicans held their first debate on Thursday, April 3, with each discussing their views on the role of the government and school vouchers.
History freshman and member of College Republicans Wesley Pokluda said the government’s role is to not control people’s bodies, make choices for the people or interfere with freedoms.
“It should serve merely as a safeguard, ensuring no individual, organization or foreign entity can infringe upon our liberty,” Pokluda said.
History and political science senior and College Republicans president Tyner Harris said the government cannot give rights, but only ensure they can’t be taken away as established in the Bill of Rights.
Political science sophomore and Aggie Democrats public relations chair Hayden Hawley said he agrees the government should protect individual rights, but the government is also there to provide a sort of social safety net.
Political science junior and Aggie Democrats recruitment officer Ben Charley said the government should also give opportunities to express unalienable rights.
“We can provide more for our Americans, if we give the tools of government to the right people as long as they are used for everyone,” Charley said.
Pokluda said the government has made the public education system worse for everyone by quadrupling the budget and putting children in debt.
“Since the Department of Education was instituted back in the ‘70s, we have seen that standardized testing scores have gone down, not up,” Pokluda said. “We have quadrupled the budget and seen no results. The Department of Education has not done what it said it was gonna do, and has put children in debt.”
Political science senior and programs manager of Aggie Democrats Ivan Teter said that state policies are primarily responsible for education policies and the test score trends can be attributed to who’s in charge.
Teter said leaving funding up to charity shows the government doesn’t want to invest in its people.
“Religious charities may choose to not invest in groups like LGBTQ+ people because they don’t fit their mold,” Teter said.
Harris said that College Republicans do not advocate for complete cuts to spending and the issues are not unique to charities. The debate had a brief intermission before moving on to the second round of questions, which focused on school choice. Hawley of Aggie Democrats said costs being shown from private school vouchers are greatly undervalued.
“These things are being sold as an efficient alternative to public school, but are producing terrible education outcomes,” Hawley said. “There is a heavy correlation between the amount of resources in public schools and how well students are doing. For 60% of Texas counties, it is not a good idea.”
Charley said school vouchers are taking away money from teachers and school districts.
“We should invest in the education system and invest in teachers and students,” Charley said.
Harris said there is no place better to exercise the right to choose than education.
“The education system is broken and needs changes, and we are throwing more and more money into it,” Harris said. “America is getting less and less intelligent. Democracy needs an educated voter base to elect people into higher office, and the current model is not working. There needs to be change, and the choice should be on parents.”
Political science sophomore and social media chair of College Republicans Maggie Martini said school choice gives parents the right to raise their children instead of some bureaucratic entity.
Teter said if parents change their minds about going to private schools, they would be unable to get school voucher funding ever again.
“It doesn’t really sound like a choice,” Teter said.
Charley said SB2 includes a provision providing more money for private schools for special education students, but many public schools already have this.
“Most private schools do not have the adequate means or funding or want or care for special needs children,” Charley said.
Harris said Florida has a high satisfaction rate of 89% for school choice, but Hawley said Texas does not have the adequate number of private schools to gauge satisfaction. After the debate concluded, Harris said he thought the debate went well and that discussion is healthy.
“I don’t think we do enough of it nowadays,” Harris said. “I think both sides articulated really great points. I hope we can continue this in the future, and promote better political discussion.”
Hawley said he believes the College Republicans weren’t exactly in line with main party stances.
“We found common ground … mainly with DOGE or Elon’s involvement and tariffs,” Hawley said. “It’s illuminating to see there are varying views, and it’s always good to talk about different viewpoints with each other.”
