Governor Abbott will be speaking Monday at San Antonio Christian School’s Parent Empowerment Night from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
SAN ANTONIO — On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott is coming to San Antonio to discuss his plan on school vouchers.
The plan would allow parents to use public tax dollars to pay for their student’s private school tuition.
Governor Abbott will be speaking at San Antonio Christian School’s Parent Empowerment Night from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Senate Bill 2 passed the senate at the beginning of the month and is now in the hands of the Texas House.
The House has previously blocked similar versions of the bill, but government officials believe Abbott has enough support now to get it passed on both levels.
The bill would use $1 billion of our tax paying dollars to fund nearly 100,000 students with education savings accounts.
Each student would get $10,000, $11,500 if they have a disability, and $2,000 for homeschool children.
Taking into account these numbers 5.5 million children are enrolled in public school.
After the senate passed this bill, KENS 5 spoke with two Texas State Representatives who were on different sides of the table.
“After covid happened, we watched a lot of parents pull their kids out of school, unhappy with the direction that the schools are going, and I think this is a bill that allows parents have more control over their their kids education,” said Wes Virdell, District 53 Texas State Representative.
“I think it’s a scam. They’re taking our taxpayer dollars that are supposed to go to our traditional public schools and our charter schools, but then sending them to private schools,” said Diego Berman, District 123 Texas State Representative.
Because vouchers weren’t passed in the last session, Abbott withheld nearly $5 billion from public schools.
He wants funding for both school vouchers and public schools approved together.
A date has not been set yet for when the bill will be heard in the house.