Lawmakers want to throw out the textbooks and start over when it comes to education reform this session.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst showed his support alongside Texas Sen. Dan Patrick Wednesday for a parent’s right to choose where their child is educated.

"We need to make it easy for the parents to determine the destiny of their children,” Dewhurst said. “Having a choice means giving children a chance."

Sen. Patrick serves as the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He is calling for changes in nearly all aspects of how public schools operate.

Among the changes is a push to allow parents to use state vouchers to pay for private school. The voucher system would essentially allow money set aside for public education to be used for private schools.

"It is immoral to say to any student or any parent, 'You must go to a poor performing school because that is your zip code,'” Sen. Patrick said. “How do we say to that child we expect you to graduate with high honors but you have to go to a school that's a failure? It's just like the Lieutenant Governor said, it is not acceptable."

Opponents of the plan have been very vocal in speaking out against the vouchers.

While just a handful of protesters waited outside the Dewhurst's press conference, the topic has received a significant amount of criticism, especially with school districts still healing from last session's deep cuts.

"Vouchers skim the cream off of the top and they leave the problem children behind," Austin parent Emily Hersh said. "Vouchers are not the answer. The answer is for our state legislature to do their duty and fully fund our public schools."

In addition, Sen. Patrick has filed a bill that would reform how the STAAR end of year testing impacts a student's grades. Patrick said he would make that a local option up to the independent school districts, which would lessen the impact of test scores on a school's overall performance.