Texas Senate to debate school voucher program
The Texas Senate is expected Wednesday to debate the creation of a school voucher program ahead of a possible vote to give Senate Bill 2 preliminary approval soon after discussion ends. The bill would allow parents to use public taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s private school tuition through a mechanism called education savings accounts.
The potential vote comes days after Gov. Greg Abbott declared the topic an emergency item during his State of the State address on Sunday, which allowed lawmakers to fast-track the proposal early during the legislative session that began last month and ends June 2.
Under the recent Senate proposal, families could receive $10,000 a year per student in public taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s tuition at an accredited private school and other expenses like textbooks, transportation, and therapy. The legislation would provide $11,500 per student for children with disabilities. It also would provide at least $2,000 a year per student for home-schooling families who participate in the program. Families would receive the money through state-managed education savings accounts.
If the Senate gives the school voucher legislation final approval, the bill would advance to the Texas House, where similar legislation repeatedly hit a brick wall two years ago. The House has not yet filed its own voucher proposal this year.
Because the program would allow some families to choose which schools their children attend, Republicans typically refer to vouchers as “school choice.”
Texas budget experts recently concluded in their fiscal analysis of SB 2 that public schools, which receive money based on attendance, may experience a decrease in funding due to students leaving the public education system to participate in the voucher program.
Abbott successfully campaigned against the rural Republicans who helped kill voucher legislation during the 2023 legislative session — with the help of record-breaking financial contributions from his deep-pocketed allies. With many of the anti-voucher Republican lawmakers no longer holding office, top state officials have expressed confidence that a voucher bill will come to fruition this year.
“We are going to make historic investments in our public schools, and we’re also going to have school choice pass this session, two things that we can do that are not going to be in conflict with one another,” newly elected House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said Tuesday while speaking to Permian Basin civic and business leaders in Austin.
Both the Texas House and Senate have proposed setting aside $1 billion in the next two years for the creation of education savings accounts, a $500 million increase from what lawmakers proposed for such a program two years ago. But that $1 billion figure could change as the legislative session plays out.
Under SB 2, any child eligible to attend or already attending a public school could apply to the program. So could those enrolled in a public school’s pre-K program and families with children already attending private schools? If demand for the education savings accounts exceeds the funding available, the bill would reserve the majority of the program’s spots for students from two groups. One of those groups is children with disabilities. The other prioritized group is children from households whose annual income is up to 500% of the federal poverty level. That would include any four-person household earning less than $156,000. SB 2 defines that as a low-income household.
By 2030, the costs of the program could soar to more than $4.5 billion, according to a fiscal analysis of the Senate voucher bill. In the analysis, budget experts predicted that half of Texas’ roughly 350,000 students currently enrolled in private schools would apply for participation during the first year.
During a public hearing for the proposal last week, debate largely focused on whether it would live up to the promise of prioritizing low-income families and children with disabilities.
Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who authored the legislation, and other school voucher advocates largely defended the bill, saying it prioritizes working families, allows families to explore alternative educational options outside of public education, and can help push public schools to perform better academically.
“The greatest form of accountability is parents having the right to move their kids to the education environment that’s best for them,” said Nathan Cunneen, the Texas state director for the pro-voucher American Federation for Children. “That’s an option that most low-income families do not have today. That’s an option that I didn’t have when I was growing up. This bill will give them that freedom, and every single student in Texas should be able to take advantage.”
But the bill includes what some Democratic lawmakers and public education advocates consider an overly generous definition of a “low-income household.” The bill also does not require private schools to follow federal and state laws regarding special education that public schools must abide by, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. The federal law, among other requirements, has long protected families and their children by working to ensure students with disabilities receive thorough evaluations and educational services.
“My mom has tried to get me into private schools before, but they said no. Because I’m in a wheelchair, they don’t want to do it,” said Felicita Piñon, a sixth grade student with cerebral palsy who testified alongside her mother, Lizdelia, during the public hearing. “Public schools are the only place where my siblings and I can go and feel included.”
In states that have already created voucher programs, many of the children who benefit come from wealthier families already sending their kids to private school. Families from poor communities are using vouchers less than wealthier ones. As for academic outcomes, studies in multiple states have shown that vouchers do not consistently lead to improved standardized test scores for low-income students, a measuring stick Texas Republican officials often rely on to make decisions about public education. In some cases, vouchers have resulted in steep academic declines.
The Senate bill does not require participants to take the same state standardized tests that public school students take annually, which some voucher opponents and school officials argue creates an unfair playing field. The proposal does require that students take a nationally recognized exam like the SAT or ACT.
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