Laura Colangelo

Laura Colangelo is the Executive Director of the Texas Private Schools Association, an advocacy organization representing the over 870 private, accredited schools in Texas in the state legislature and in DC.  In this role, she is the “public voice for private schools in Texas.”  She has had three successful legislative sessions in which she passed bills regarding credit card fees, epi-pens, and school marshals in private schools.  This past session, she passed four student protection bills that keep predators out of private schools in the state.  These became law on September 1^st. Prior to this role, she was the head of an Episcopal preschool in Austin, Texas, focused on providing a quality early childhood educational experience in a historically under-served population.  Her focus was on providing an individualized and developmentally-appropriate curriculum with an eye to school readiness.  This approach resulted in exponential growth for the school and the community. Laura received her Bachelor's Degree from Duke University and her Master's in Education at the University of Kentucky.  After teaching middle and upper school Spanish in both public and private schools in Houston, she focused her University of Texas doctoral work in curriculum and instruction on the integration of minority students in private schools.  She is able to use both her experience and research not only to represent the interests of private schools, but also to advance education policy focused on quality outcomes for all students in Texas.