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The Texas Senate on Friday revealed a bill to create a savings account program, a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott and top lawmakers after a similar bill failed to pass the last legislative session.
The bill, co-authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, would provide families with $10,000 per year per student in taxpayer dollars to fund college tuition. their children in an accredited private school and additional expenses like textbooks, transportation and therapy. The legislation would provide $11,500 per student to children with disabilities. It would also provide at least $2,000 per year per student for homeschool families who participate in the program.
“Texas families are rejecting the status quo and calling for an education system that prioritizes their children’s success. Senate Bill 2 puts parents at the center of their child’s education, allowing them the freedom to choose the educational path that works best for their families,” Creighton said in a statement.
Any child attending a public school or enrolled in a public school’s pre-K program would be eligible to apply for the program. Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s top school voucher advocate, has previously called for any voucher proposal to have universal eligibility. The bill would prioritize students from low-income households and children with disabilities if demand for savings accounts exceeds available funding.
Organizations helping to administer the program should inform parents that private schools do not have to follow federal and state laws regarding special education that public schools must follow, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or the idea.
The bill also has a provision to address potential misuse of funds. It directs the state to refer to local authorities any organizations or individuals helping to administer the program or participating in IT that uses funds in an unauthorized manner. Approved expenses include private school tuition, industry-based certification training, tutoring and educational materials.
The Senate bill comes during the same week that the House and Senate released their budget priorities for the 2025 legislative session. Both chambers have proposed setting aside $1 billion over the next two years to create educational savings accounts — a $500 million increase over what lawmakers proposed for such a program during the 2023 legislative session.
Under Friday’s proposal, that would mean about 100,000 students who want to enroll in an accredited private school could participate in the program. Texas public schools currently enroll approximately 5.5 million children.
Mandy Drogin, campaign director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, one of the state’s leading conservative organizations pushing for education savings accounts, told the Texas Tribune that the Senate bill would create the largest educational savings account program in the United States
“Additionally, universal eligibility would ensure that no child is excluded and that every parent will have the opportunity to make educational choices for their children,” she said in a statement.
Chandra Villanueva, director of policy and advocacy at All Texan, who opposes vouchers, said she did not think the bill would prioritize low-income students or children with disabilities if requested. for the program exceeds the funding will have as much impact.
“Most low-income families will not be able to afford the tuition gap for a private school, or they will send their children to a lower quality school because they market themselves as private but don’t offer nothing above and beyond What a public education would do,” she said.
Villanueva added that she also doesn’t think the bill will help special education students much, given a relatively small number of private schools in the state specializing in serving students with disabilities.
After years of hitting a brick wall, school voucher advocates in Texas entered this year’s legislative session with a better chance than ever of passing a measure that would allow parents to use public money to pay private schooling for their children. The Senate largely stood in lockstep with Abbott as he pushed for a voucher program.
The house remains the biggest challenge.
Last session, lawmakers in this chamber voted to strip away from a massive education funding bill, a provision to establish educational savings accounts. Twenty-one Republicans, most of whom represented rural school districts, joined House Democrats in opposition to the legislation over concerns that such a proposal would undermine public school funding.
In response, Abbott campaigned against Republicans who helped block his plan. He did so successfully with the financial support of people like Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass – a vocal critic of public schools – who sought to use their money and influence nationally to influence the outcome of local elections against opponents of school vouchers.
Since then, many of the Texas House’s voucher opponents no longer hold seats, and Abbott has expressed confidence that the chamber now has enough votes to pass the voucher legislation. Some opponents hold out hope that pro-Protein lawmakers will stumble over the many moving parts still in the air.
Earlier this week, the House and Senate also proposed allocating $4.85 billion in new funding to the state’s public schools. During the last legislative session, public schools did not receive a significant boost after lawmakers refused to pass a school voucher program. Abbott had promised not to sign a bill increasing funding for public education without enacting a voucher program. That has left school districts across the state grappling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, campus closures, declining enrollment, expired pandemic relief funds, inflation and teacher shortages.
This session, the Senate wants to increase teacher salaries by $4,000. Teachers in rural areas would receive an additional $6,000 pay bump — a total of $10,000 — which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said would close the pay gap between urban and rural teachers. It was not immediately clear whether teachers would receive a pay raise every year or just once. The increase is higher than what lawmakers proposed last session, but still falls short of what public teachers say they need to bring their salaries in line with the national average.
Disclosure: Every Texan and Texas Public Policy Foundation have been financial supporters of the Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors . Financial supporters play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a full list of them here.
