Bob Daemmrich
Republicans in the Texas Senate unveiled their proposal for a school voucher-like program Friday with the filing of Senate Bill 2. The bill would create education savings accounts, or ESAs, that allow families to use $10,000 of state funds per student toward private school tuition and other approved education expenses.
Creating a voucher-like program for Texas has been a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott for years. Efforts to pass the proposal – which failed in both the regular 88th Legislative session and multiple special sessions in 2023 – emerged from last November’s election with a much stronger chance of making it over the finish line this year. That’s because several new pro-voucher Republicans have joined the Texas House, where similar measures stalled last session.
Crucially, the House signaled its increased support for some form of vouchers earlier this week, when it unveiled a budget proposal that, like the Senate’s budget proposal, included $1 billion for such a program.
“This session, we are fully committed to passing universal, comprehensive school choice legislation, ensuring every Texas family has access to the educational opportunities they deserve,” said state Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), chair of the Senate Education Committee. “It’s time for Texas to join the 32 other states that already empower parents and students with greater educational freedom.”
Mandy Drogin, campaign director with Next Generation Texas, said the bill would establish, “the largest day one ESA program in the nation.”
What the voucher-like program in Senate Bill 2 entails
All Texas students would be eligible for ESAs under SB 2, regardless of whether they are currently enrolled in public school or private school or being home schooled. According to the legislation, if applications exceed the program’s capacity, 80% of the spots would be filled by a lottery among students who previously attended public school and are either low-income or have a disability. The remaining 20% would be filled by an open lottery among all eligible applicants.
Under SB 2, if a family enrolls their child in a private school, the student will receive $10,000 per year or $11,500 if the student has a disability. Critics of the proposal, including David DeMatthews of the University of Texas at Austin, have argued these amounts are likely to be far short of what’s needed to subsidize a private school education.
“That is a joke of an amount of money difference for our students with disabilities,” said DeMatthews, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at UT-Austin.
While that dollar amount may seem large, DeMatthews said it wouldn’t help parents cover all costs associated with private schooling. He worries that would lead to, “the creation of a dollar system where public schools will be educating virtually every child with a disability, especially a child with autism or an intellectual disability.”
DeMatthews also told The Texas Newsroom the Senate’s legislation doesn’t include enough accountability for private schools. The bill would require that students in the ESA program take a nationally norm-referenced assessment. Matthews said it wouldn’t be easily comparable to the state’s standardized tests, making it harder for parents to draw comparisons or track improvements.
SB 2 has already been sent to the Senate Education Committee, which Creighton chairs. Being voted out of committee will be the legislation’s first step toward being debated and voted on in the full chamber.
Under state rules, the Texas Legislature can’t pass any legislation for the first 60 days of its session – that is, unless the governor designates a measure as an emergency item. Abbott named vouchers as an emergency item at the beginning of the last regular legislative session in 2023, then called three separate special sessions to deal with the issue when it failed to pass the House.