AUSTIN — A group of GOP Senators on Friday unveiled a proposal to let students use taxpayer dollars on private school tuition in what is likely the opening shot in the fight over voucher-like programs this session.
The legislation would create “education savings accounts” of up to $8,000, which families can use to pay for private school tuition, books and other materials, such as uniforms.
The wide-ranging bill filed by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, seems designed to address criticisms lobbed at other states’ school choice efforts. For example, families won’t get cash up front, and the money can only go to private schools and other vendors that are approved by the state.
Homeschoolers and families whose children are already enrolled in private schools would not be eligible for the money, only students who spent the last year enrolled in public school or are just beginning their education.
There’s also a big financial sweetener in the bill for rural Republicans, who have historically resisted vouchers, in part, because their regions often lack private schools. Under the bill’s funding mechanism, small public school districts could see their state funding grow even if students leave for private schools.
“Giving parents the power to determine the best school for their child will encourage competition and innovation, ensuring that each Texas student has the opportunity to succeed,” Creighton said in a statement.
Public education advocates are bracing for a battle this session as many conservatives view growing momentum over school-choice efforts as the culmination of frustration with public schools.
“Using public tax dollars, taken from our 5.4 million Texas schoolchildren, to underwrite the private education of a few is an egregious moral violation,” the public education advocacy group Pastors for Texas Children said in a recent statement. “We find it particularly troubling for public funding to advance and establish religious programs in private schools.”
The education savings account framework is wrapped into a larger bill focused on parental rights, which has become a red-meat rallying cry of hardline conservatives. It includes provisions requiring consent for various health screenings and says schools must adopt procedures for notifying a parent if there is a change in the students’ mental health.
It would also establish rules preventing a school district from providing “instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick named voucher-like initiatives a priority this year. While they’ve never gained enough traction to pass the GOP-led Legislature previously, conservatives think escalating education culture wars and a focus on parental rights after the COVID-19 pandemic may have primed the pathway.
Patrick has named this bill a focus for the session.
But the proposal remains fiercely opposed by Democrats and public school leaders who fear it will funnel money away from the campuses that serve the vast majority of Texas’ more than 5 million students.
The focus will largely be on Republicans in the House, where leaders have not been as vocal in their feelings this session.
In other states, scaled-back voucher initiatives have passed only for more broad pushes to quickly follow. School leaders nervous about vouchers liken these efforts to seeing the camel’s nose under the tent.
As written now, families who opt for an education savings account could use the money to pay for a child’s private school tuition, books, tutoring, transportation or other materials, such as uniforms. Unlike programs in some other states which can operate like debit cards, the bill calls for parents to make purchase orders through a process overseen by the comptroller’s office. All vendors would be required to apply to the state for approval, which for private schools includes being accredited.
Students who take advantage of the education savings accounts would have to take tests, but the STAAR assessment would not explicitly be required.
The proposal, which has eight other Republican Senators already signed on, is likely to change as it moves through the legislative process.
Also Friday, Creighton asked Attorney General Ken Paxton for an expedited legal review of several questions related to education savings accounts, specifically because religious schools could be involved in the program.
The education savings account would take effect in the 2024-25 school year.
Public school districts with fewer than 20,000 students would benefit from a “hold harmless” measure, which would ensure their funding doesn’t drop off immediately and dramatically if students leave.
The state would give those schools $10,000 for each student who leaves for a private school, which is larger than the roughly $6,000 annual base payment public schools receive for every student they educate.
Big districts — such as Dallas, Fort Worth and several others throughout Dallas, Collin and Tarrant counties — would get no such financial protections.
Creighton’s bill also calls for random auditing.
What has consistently defeated voucher-like proposals in Texas is a coalition of urban Democrats and rural Republicans, who agree on not wanting to funnel state money away from public schools.
But Patrick, who presides over the Senate, has been adamant that this is the year to pass a “school choice” program. Patrick also alluded to possible special sessions in order to get it done.
“We should not leave here this year until we pass school choice,” Patrick said earlier this month, according to the Austin American-Statesman. “I don’t have any plans this summer.”
Patrick previously pitched that any voucher legislation would exclude small, rural districts and instead be directed only at urban communities, calling Dallas and other big districts “dropout factories.”
Abbott has been touring Christian private schools across the state as part of the push. He tapped into political frustrations over how schools approach lessons around race, gender and sexuality.
“Parents are angry about ‘woke’ agendas being pushed on their children in our schools,” Abbott said during a recent speech at Corsicana’s Park Meadows Academy, a church and school that stresses a Christian education. “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination.”
Abbott has said broad-scale education savings accounts are the way to go in Texas.
Traditional vouchers often send the funds straight to the private school or educational institution where the student enrolls. Education savings accounts typically give the money directly to families, sometimes in the form of a preloaded debit card.
The state piloted a form of such savings accounts through microgrants made available to select students with disabilities in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
Several questions must be hammered out by the Legislature: How will private schools be held accountable for public dollars? Should students who attend such schools be required to undergo standardized testing? What could money from an education savings account be spent on? How much money?
Public school advocates are adamantly opposed to any voucher-like legislation. They worry such programs will mean less money for the neighborhood schools that educate the majority of Texas’ more than 5 million students. They also point to a variety of options that Texas public schools already offer.
Private schools can turn children away, unlike public schools, and aren’t held to the same standards for accountability.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
