As the Texas 2025 Legislative Session continues, vouchers have become a debated topic with many asking questions about what vouchers are specifically.
With the discussion ongoing regarding vouchers, the term “school choice” is how law makers are regarding the topic. School vouchers use public funds to help families pay for their children’s private education.
Those in favor say families should receive state support to send their child to a different school if public schools aren’t adequately serving them.
The opposition worries a voucher program would strip vital funds away from already cashstrapped public schools.
Texas lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott say the Legislature will create a voucher program this year. Those vows come after lawmakers in 2023 repeatedly failed to get several voucher proposals through the House, where some rural Republicans joined Democrats in blocking the measures.
In their initial budget proposals for the next two years, both the Texas House and Senate set aside $1 billion for the creation of an education savings account program in the state.
At the beginning of Feb., the Senate passed a bill that calls for providing families $10,000 a year in state funds, placed in education savings accounts, to pay for their children’s tuition at an accredited private school as well as additional expenses like textbooks, transportation and therapy.
Under the current budget proposal, roughly up to 100,000 students who want to enroll into an accredited private school could participate in the Senate’s program.
Senate Bill 2 would provide more — $11,500 — for children with disabilities. It also would provide at least $2,000 a year for children being home-schooled.
Any child eligible to attend or are already attending a public school, as well as those enrolled in a public school’s pre-K program, could apply to the program proposed by the Senate. Families with children already attending private schools could also participate.
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 bill does not require private schools to follow federal and state laws regarding special education that public schools must abide by — nor do private schools have to admit students who do not meet their standards.
The bill also does not require participants to take the same state standardized tests issued to public school students annually, which some voucher opponents and school officials have said creates an unfair playing field. It does require that students take a nationally-recognized exam like the SAT or ACT.
The bill directs the state to refer to local authorities any organizations or individuals helping administer the program or participating in it who use the funds in ways not allowed.
Both the Senate’s voucher bill and the state’s budget are likely to undergo several changes before this year’s legislative session ends on June 2. The House has not yet unveiled its proposal or taken up SB 2.
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.