A proposal to create a school voucher-like plan for Texas was moved forward by a panel of lawmakers Tuesday night, giving voucher supporters like Gov. Greg Abbott their first major win of the legislative session.
The vote from the Texas Senate Education Committee came after an hours-long meeting filled with passionate testimony from those both for and against the idea of giving parents taxpayer funds to help subsidize the cost of private schooling.
The legislation – Senate Bill 2 – would create education savings accounts (ESAs) that allow families to use $10,000 of state funds per student to subsidize the cost of private school tuition, plus cover other approved education expenses. The plan is a top priority for Abbott as well as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who made sure it was one of the firsts bills discussed by lawmakers this session.
Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, is the sponsor of the bill. On Tuesday, he told the committee – which he also chairs – that the legislation is needed.
“We know that a one-size-fits-all education does not work for many of our students in Texas.”
Sen. Brandon Creighton, bill sponsor
“We know that a one-size-fits-all education does not work for many of our students in Texas,” Creighton said.
Right now, SB 2 would prioritize families falling under a designated income threshold and children with disabilities. As written, it would set aside 80% of available ESA funds for families deemed low-income, and that $10,000 per student would increase to $11,500 for children with disabilities.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, told the committee on Tuesday that he took issue with how the bill designated which families are considered low-income. SB 2 defines them as families with annual household incomes equal to or less than 500% above the federal poverty line.
For a family of four, “that ends up being roughly $156,000,” West said. “The average income, or median income in the state of Texas for a family of four is about $76,000. Okay? And so this does not prioritize – at least I don’t see it – the lowest income in our state.”
Creighton defended the high cap, saying it allows for families like West described to take advantage of the program.
Senate Bill 2 would open up the last 20% of available ESA funds for anyone, even families that currently can afford to send their kids to private schools. The Texas Newsroom spoke with several people against that idea who had gathered to testify Tuesday. They said they believe the $1 billion lawmakers have proposed using for the program could be better used to fully fund public schools.
Russell Withers, the Director of Policy at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute think tank, was one of the several advocates for the program that were invited to testify before the committee.
“Some people will say that this bill hurts public schools and public school students, as Chairman Creighton clarified this bill doesn’t take a dollar from public schools,” Withers said. “There is a tremendous body of academic evidence that public schools do better when they’re exposed to competition induced by private school choice.”
Withers said Senate Bill 2 is the best version of a school voucher-like program that there is in the nation.
“Assuming a $1 billion appropriation it would create the largest day 1 school-choice program in America,” Withers said.
After Withers and the others on his panel were done speaking, a group of women whispered that the invited testimony was all one-sided as they left the room.
One of those women was retired educator Kathleen Degreeff. Outside the hearing, she told The Texas Newsroom that she “thought there might be a little more discussion about the pros and cons on the bill. And the panel all were pro.”
Degreeff suggested lawmakers should instead use $1 billion to improve options for students in Texas’ public schools.
That view was reflected by many people who spoke before the committee once the meeting was open for public testimony. Several dozen people spoke against the bill, including students with special needs, parents, and current and former teachers.
Tijuana Hudson, a fellow with the Texas Education Policy Institute, said it was premature to pass SB 2 because of a lack of data.
“Eighteen states have adopted ESA policies, but no state currently evaluates their programs with all four critical data points necessary to ensure equitable and effective outcomes,” Hudson said.
She said the data points include sufficient program size, the age of the program, comparable funding, and comparable data between ESA and non-ESA students.
Hudson also said the bill’s accountability standards aren’t high enough. As written, SB 2 would not require students in the program to take the same standardized tests they would if enrolled in a public school. Instead, they’d take a norm-referenced assessment.
University of Texas at Austin education professor David DeMatthews recently told The Texas Newsroom that doesn’t help when trying to truly compare student improvement between public and private schools.
“As long as you have everybody taking different tests, well, guess what? Then there’s no usable information for families,” DeMatthews said. “I would say that’s by intention because of the research on vouchers in Indiana, D.C., Ohio, Louisiana, that shows that when they take the same test comparably over time that students using vouchers do significantly worse.”
Now that the measure has been advanced by the Texas Senate Education Committee, it moves on for debate in the full chamber. If Abbott designates it an emergency item in his State of the State address this Sunday, it could be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week.