Texas bill that lets families use tax dollars for private schools swiftly sails through Senate

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Texas families could use tax dollars to fund their children’s private school tuition under a Republican-backed bill that sailed through the Senate late Wednesday.

Under Senate Bill 2, 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. Home-schooling students with disabilities could receive $2,500 a year for therapy, a provision lawmakers added into the bill Wednesday. Families would receive the money through state-managed education savings accounts.

SB 2 advanced in a 19-12 vote, with all Democrats and one Republican — Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville — opposing the legislation. The bill now goes to the Texas House. Similar legislation repeatedly hit a brick wall in that chamber two years ago, but top officials have said there are now enough supporters in the House to create education savings accounts this year.

Democratic senators, who repeatedly failed in their attempts to amend the bill Wednesday, questioned whether education savings accounts will help low-income families. They also worried that a voucher program will financially undermine public schools by drawing students — and state funds — away from local districts.

In his closing remarks before the final vote on the bill he authored, Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton said students should have educational options beyond the zip codes they live in. He also blasted Democrats for opposing the legislation.

"What are we fighting for?" Creighton said. "Mediocrity?"

Senate Republicans’ success in quickly passing the bill comes days after Gov. Greg Abbott declared “school choice” 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.

School voucher supporters, including top state officials, typically refer to such programs as “school choice” because they allow some families to choose the form of schooling best suited for their child with the help of state dollars. Many conservatives say parents should not have to keep their children in public schools they believe are unsafe or underperforming academically. Some voucher opponents have accused supporters of wanting to sabotage public education and establish an educational system that reflects conservative Christian values. Many private schools in Texas have a religious focus.

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 roughly $156,000. SB 2 defines that as a low-income household.

The Texas Education Agency, for comparison, considers a student low income if they reside in a household earning between 130% and 185% of the poverty level — roughly $40,560 and $57,720 for a four-person household, respectively. Sixty-two percent of Texas’ public school students fall under that definition.

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.

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 debate before Wednesday’s vote, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, questioned Creighton, a Conroe Republican, on how the program would ensure it does not foster more segregation in the state’s education system. West nodded, in part, to the intent of early school voucher proposals in the 1950s to prevent white children from having to attend schools with Black children after the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled race-based school segregation unconstitutional.

White students make up roughly 55% of private school students in Texas, compared to 6% of Black students and 23% of Hispanic students, according to available statistics in ProPublica’s national private school database. Black and Hispanic students make up the overwhelming majority — 66% — of Texas’ public school system, data from the Texas Education Agency show.

West also raised further questions about how the voucher proposal intends to assist low-income families, given the bill would prioritize families of four making up to around $156,000 a year if demand for the program exceeds funding.

“If there were parents of a child in a low-performing school, their chance of getting a voucher is the same as a child that comes from a home that’s making $150,000-$160,000?” West asked.

Creighton said he did not want to exclude middle class families from accessing the voucher program, underscoring points he made last week about wanting to ensure that people with essential jobs — like first responders and teachers — have a fair shot at participating in the program. Creighton, who chairs the chamber’s education committee, called attention to a provision in the bill requiring the state to produce reports about the makeup of program participants, which would allow lawmakers to assess whether the program is unfairly benefiting particular demographics of students over others.

“When we review the success of the program, which that’s what it will be — successful — we can decide for the future how we want this program to look,” Creighton said.

Some Democratic senators questioned private schools’ exemption from school safety requirements and said the program would not benefit rural school districts — many of which do not have private schools located near them.

Creighton also sought to assure lawmakers that the voucher bill would not hurt the Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ retirement fund for public school employees. A recent legislative analysis of the bill noted that a decrease to the number of teachers paying into the fund — which could happen if students and teachers leave public schools for private schools — could affect the long-term stability of the program.

“We would never design a program that would put TRS at risk,” Creighton said, referring to the Teacher Retirement System.

Creighton made those comments in response to a line of questioning from Sen. Joan Huffman, R- Houston, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, who also said she’s seen no evidence from other states that a voucher program would harm a teacher retirement fund.

“I’m sure that we can give anyone listening our commitment … that we will continue to monitor the pension system to make sure there’s no negative effect,” Huffman said. “But there’s absolutely no indicators that causes concern at this point that we were jumping into something that would harm our retired teachers.”

Democrats also raised concerns that the $10,000 SB 2 would allow for a student’s education savings account is more state money than the $6,160 base amount public schools receive from the state per student. That base amount does not include funding from sources outside of the state budget nor the additional funding schools receive for other reasons — for example, a student requiring special education services.

“This program, the $10,000, is all from state money,” said Carol Alvarado, D-Houston. “That’s the big problem that many of us have with this. You are giving more per pupil to the voucher program as opposed to what the state — if you dwindle it down — to what the state is solely responsible” for.

Both the Texas House and Senate have proposed setting aside $1 billion in the next two years for the creation of the education savings accounts, a $500 million increase from what lawmakers proposed for such a program two years ago. That would mean roughly up to 100,000 students who want to enroll in a state-recognized private school could participate in the program. Around 5.5 million children currently attend public schools. But the $1 billion figure set in the budget for the voucher program could change as the legislative session plays out.

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. 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.”

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.

During Wednesday’s debate, Creighton said he didn’t think it made sense to impose the same testing requirements on private schools that some public school officials say they oppose — like the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR.

“There may be an incredible amount of validity in reducing the requirements, or strings, or mandates on public schools that everyone on this floor can bring a bill forward to accomplish,” Creighton said.

It’s unclear when the House will take up SB 2 or its own voucher legislation. Newly elected House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has not yet appointed committee chairs, a key step in moving legislation through the lower chamber. He said those appointments could come next week. But, at a breakfast in Austin this week, he told civic and business leaders from the Permian Basin that the House will pass a voucher program.

“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,” he said.

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