AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — After hours of impassioned debate, members of the Texas Senate voted Wednesday evening to advance a controversial education savings account bill, sending it to the state House for consideration.
The chamber voted to approve Senate Bill 2 in a 19-12 vote, with a single Republican rebelling against his party to vote against it. The bill seeks to create education savings accounts for students to use taxpayer dollars to spend towards private schools.
The bill’s author, state Senator Brandon Creighton — a Republican from Conroe — has spearheaded Senate Republicans’ efforts to enact a so-called school choice program during several legislative sessions. While laying out his bill, Creighton told his colleagues that the legislation is aimed at providing options to parents who feel like their children are trapped in failing public schools.
“Despite our work for teachers that we value and respect so much and the billions of dollars we spend in our state budget, many students are feeling left behind, and they’re performing in a way that leaves them behind. That is unacceptable,” Creighton said.
While commonly referred to as a school voucher bill, Creighton says that is a misnomer, because under his bill funds will never be dispensed directly to parents. Rather, their accounts will be managed through the Texas Comptroller’s Office, which is responsible for releasing funds to accredited private schools.
Students from pre-kindergarten through undergraduate college are eligible to apply for the program. If accepted, they would receive $10,000 to cover the cost of education expenses such as tuition, textbooks, tutoring and transportation. Children with disabilities would get an additional $1,500 under the proposal. Parents who have opted to homeschool their children would receive $2,000 per student and an additional $500 to pay for educational therapies for homeschooled students with disabilities.
Creighton says bill could help as many as 100,000 students receive funds to get into the school of their choice. If applications for the program exceed the amount of money allocated, the program would shift to a lottery-based system giving low-income and disabled students priority.
Recent polling from the University of Houston shows that a majority of Texans support providing state funds to parents to use for private education. A January poll found 72% of parents are in favor of a program that would provide state funds to low-income families while 67% support sending funds to all parents.
Contrary to Republicans’ overwhelming support for SB 2, Democrats have remained unified in their opposition of it. Just before the final vote was held, Democrats took turns stating why they could not support the bill. One such senator was Houston Democrat Boris Miles, who reminded his colleagues of the history of school vouchers being used by white parents who opposed desegregation in the 1950s. He argued that SB 2 would lead to more segregation and greater inequities for students of color.
“Vouchers will widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor, as families with more resources are better able to take advantage of private school options,” said Miles. “This can lead to increasing segregation by race, class and ability to undermine our efforts to create more equitable educational opportunities for all students.”
Several Democrats, Miles, spoke to concerns about the affect the legislation might have on public education in the state. Senator César Blanco, a Democrat from El Paso, said that the bill would leave English learners and working families in his rural West Texas district with fewer choices and drain resources from school districts.
Public education advocacy organizations in the state have echoed those concerns. Ovidia Molina, president of Texas State Teachers Association — the largest teachers union in the state — said in a news release Wednesday that SB 2 would put adequate funding for schools and pay for teachers in jeopardy.
“The simple truth is that Texas taxpayers cannot afford two separate education systems, one public and one private,” said Molina said. “And they cannot afford to give tax subsidies to wealthy families with kids already in private school, many of whom will receive vouchers under this bill.”
Senator Creighton responded to these criticisms in a speech before the vote, saying he found his fellow senators’ rhetoric on his bill incredible in light of separate proposals that would provide “historic new dollars for Texas public schools and Texas teachers.”
“This concept that this bill is somehow an effort to defund, destabilize, create discrimination or essentially destroy public schools when we are talking about helping those who need a path in education, that kind of rhetoric would be used,” said Creighton. “I can’t imagine it.”
Senate Bill 2 now moves onto the Texas House. If signed into law, Texas would join the 32 other states that offer some type of school voucher program.