Texas House and Senate released a budget to set $1 billion of our tax dollars to go towards education savings accounts. Here’s what to know.
AUSTIN, Texas — On Tuesday, proposed funding for school vouchers in Texas was top of mind for lawmakers in Austin.
The Texas House and Senate released a budget to set $1 billion of our tax dollars to go towards education savings accounts.
Governor Greg Abbott was really pushing this effort in the 2024 election cycle going against Democrats and members of his own party who didn’t side with him.
Lawmakers who created Senate Bill 2 say its all about giving Texas families school choice.
“We know that a one size fits all education does not work for many of our students in Texas,” said Senator Brandon Creighton of Conroe, who co-authored the bill. “At the end of the day many of our Texas students need options and variations on their learning environment.”
If passed, it would give families $10,000 a year per student to learn at a private school of the parents choosing.
$11,500 would be given to students with special needs.
For students who are homeschooled — at least $2,000 would be allocated.
Gov. Abbott has previously called for universal eligibility to focus on low income families.
This would benefit nearly 100,000 students in the entire program but 5.5 million children are enrolled in public school.
The debate on school voucher’s impact has been down the middle.
Opponents of the bill say that state funding shouldn’t be going to private schools because it would take funding and students away from public schools.
Melina Espiritu-Azocar, president of Northside AFT, argues parents already have a choice.
“Parents have choice in the public education setting. And they continue to have a choice to send their children wherever they want to send them to school,” she said. “What we’re saying is that they just do not need to be using public dollars for private entities and we need to fund starving public schools with the money that is clearly there.”
Public schools also say private schools have less regulation on what’s taught in class.
In response, Gov. Abbott says no teacher or school knows a child better than their parent.
Because vouchers weren’t passed in the last session, Abbott withheld nearly $5 billion from public schools.
Creighton emphasized today the one billion dollars allocated for this senate bill will not come from the public school budget.
Texas hasn’t had an increase for funding per student since 2019 making an impact of public school budgets.
To counter debates on school choice vouchers, the House and Senate has proposed allocating, again, nearly $5 billion to support public schools.