Here it is. Get ready to be sick of the whole debate by the end of the session.
The Texas Senate revealed a bill on Friday to create an education savings accounts program, a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott and top lawmakers after a similar bill failed to pass last legislative session.
The bill, co-authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe who chairs the Senate Education Committee, would provide families with $10,000 a year per student in taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s tuition at an accredited private school and additional expenses like textbooks, transportation and therapy. The legislation would provide $11,500 per student for children with disabilities. It also would provide at least $2,000 a year per student for home-schooling 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 places parents at the center of their child’s education, empowering them with the freedom to choose the educational path that works best for their families,” Creighton said in a statement.
School vouchers, also referred to as “school choice” programs, use taxpayer money to help families pay for their children’s private schooling. Education savings accounts are a voucher-like program that allows families to draw funds from a state-managed account to pay for private school tuition and other education-related expenses.
Any child attending a public school or enrolled in a public school’s pre-K program could apply to 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 in low-income households and children with disabilities if demand for the savings accounts exceeds the funding available.
Organizations helping administer the program would have to notify parents that private schools do not have to follow federal and state laws regarding special education that public schools must abide by, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or 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 administer the program or participating in it who use the funds in ways not allowed. Approved expenses include private school tuition, training for an industry-based certification, tutoring and instructional materials.
The bill 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.
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Chandra Villanueva, director of policy and advocacy at Every Texan, which opposes vouchers, said she doesn’t think the bill’s prioritizing of low-income students or children with disabilities if demand for the program exceeds funding will have that much of an impact.
“Most low-income families won’t be able to afford the tuition gap for a private school, or they’ll be sending their kids to a lower quality school because they market themselves as private but don’t really offer anything above and beyond what a public education would,” she said.
Villanueva added she doesn’t think the bill will help special education students much either, given a relatively small number of private schools in the state specializing in serving students with disabilities.
I’m not going to get into a policy debate here, we know that the point of vouchers is to divert tons of money to mostly Christian schools, weakening public education along the way. There is one thing I want to hone in on here, and that is who is eligible to get that money to send their kids to private schools. The story makes it sound like it’s only open to the 5.5 million kids currently in public schools, but that doesn’t make sense. It’s always been my view that the main beneficiaries of vouchers will be people who currently have kids in private schools. It’s supposed to be a giveaway to this significant part of the Republican voter base.
So I read the text of the bill, and sure enough:
Sec. 29.355. ELIGIBLE CHILD. (a) A child is eligible to participate in the program if the child is eligible to:
(1) attend a public school under Section 25.001; or
(2) enroll in a public school’s prekindergarten program under Section 29.153.
Section 25.001 just says that any kid between the ages of five and 21 on September 1 of a school year is eligible to attend a public school, and thus eligible to get a voucher. So yeah, every kid now at Kinkaid or Hockaday can tap into this as well. The first 100K who apply can, anyway. Get ready for a gold rush, because once this is signed it will be on.
