Wendy Davis, a daughter of a professional theater director, now has the largest cheering section of her 15-year political career.

Yet when she took the Texas Senate floor Sunday night and held it until time ran out on a school finance bill, she stood alone.

Even on a holiday weekend, few parents or teachers showed up at the Texas Capitol with their jobs, their schools and the education of future Texans hanging in the balance.

Not one "Save Our Schools" sticker was in sight. There was no sign of TV education spokesman Tommy Lee Jones.

By the end of her 79-minute short-form filibuster, about all Davis had accomplished was keeping Gov. Rick Perry from campaigning in Iowa for a few more days.

She wants parents and teachers to rise up and demand a budget that doesn't shortchange schools by $4 billion.

But after a session where Midland millionaires and miserly Tea Party groups dominated public debate, will anyone bother to come to Austin during the summer and defend the public schools?

"I want to make sure people across the state understand the consequences of this budget," Davis said Tuesday morning on WBAP/96.7 FM and 820 AM in one of several interviews about why she stalled a bill that Republicans still can easily pass in a special session.

What she's saying is that Democrats can't stop the budget-cutting. But they can give opponents 30 days to scream about it.

Davis said Republicans are "leaving money on the table" by not closing corporate tax loopholes or taking money away from Perry's business or technology incentive funds.

(Perry made it sound like a big deal when his office granted $2.8 million to bring a toolmaker and 585 workers to Mansfield. But the Arlington school district will lay off 390.)

"That money's supposed to be for job creation," Davis said. "But how about job retention?"

So far, Texans haven't responded.

In a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll in May, more than half the Republicans supported cutting most categories of education funding. One-third of Tea Partiers said to go ahead and chop away at primary and secondary schools.

Senate Republicans have the votes to pass whatever bills they want in the special session.

The only question is whether Davis will continue to stand alone.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Twitter @budkennedy

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