AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Tuesday morning, the Texas House Committee on Public Education are meeting in front of a dozens of public education advocates to discuss their bill to establish an education savings account (ESA) program — commonly referred to as school choice by supporters, or school vouchers by opponents.
Passage in the Texas House remains the last major obstacle for ESA legislation, a legislative priority for Gov. Greg Abbott.
What’s in House Bill 3 (HB 3)?
Authored by State Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, HB 3 primarily creates an ESA program allowing qualified parents to put taxpayer funds towards their children’s education. The bill would give parents “85% of the estimated statewide average amount of state and local funding per student in average daily attendance for the applicable school year.”
According to data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), each family would receive about $11,394.25 based on preliminary estimates. Buckley’s office previously estimated students would get slightly over $10,000 each.
Students with a disability would get the same amount plus the amount a public school would’ve been given for the student if they had attended. The amount can not exceed $30,000.
This can include tuition for private schools, for a higher education provider (the student must be eligible to be in a public high school), an online educational course or for industry-specific training. Families can also use their ESA for corollary education expenses, such as textbooks, school uniforms, academic tests and private school lunches. Unused money would roll over to the following year, provided the child is still eligible.
By comparison, the Senate’s ESA bill — passed in February — has a flat amount of $10,000 for students using the ESA towards private school, upped to $11,500 for those with a disability. Only $2,000 would be granted towards students using ESA for homeschool services.
Who gets priority to the funds?
The amount of funding for the program is limited, meaning parents of eligible children would be put in a tiered-lottery system.
Priority would be granted to students in the following order:
- Students with disabilities whose families make less than five times the federal poverty guidelines (currently $160,750 for a family of four).
- Students whose families make less than twice the federal poverty guidelines (currently $64,300 for a family of four).
- Students whose families make more than twice the federal poverty guidelines, but less than five times the federal poverty guidelines (currently between $64,300-$160,750 for a family of four).
- Students whose families make more than five times the federal poverty guidelines (currently $160,750 for a family of four).
The tier system is a sharp departure from the version of ESA legislation already passed by the Texas Senate, which earmarks 80% of available funds to go towards students with disabilities or families making below five times the federal poverty threshold. The other 20% would be distributed randomly.
Long history of failures
Bills relating to school choice have at least three decades of history in the Texas Legislature, with support for tax dollars going to private schools ramping up in the last decade.
The most high-profile failed attempts at an ESA program came during the 2023 legislative session after Abbott first declared it an emergency item, allowing the legislature to fast-track the measure. The Texas Senate did exactly that, passing a bill to establish school vouchers that April. The House never considered the identical legislation, also killing another ESA bill in committee without a vote from the full House.
Abbott then called a special session for legislators to pass an ESA program in October 2023, attempting to negotiate with the House by rolling teacher pay raises in with ESA legislation. After two special sessions ended up with no ESA program established, Abbott led a campaign to oust House Republicans who killed the bill, successfully replacing 11 of 15 incumbents he challenged by endorsing their opponents. In addition, Republicans took two seats from Democrats in the 2024 election, bolstering their slim majority support for establishing an ESA program.
This year’s HB 3 has 75 co-authors along with Buckley. With 150 seats in the Texas House, HB 3 would pass if every author votes “yes” on their own bill.
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