The debate over creating a school voucher-like program in Texas is gearing up again at the Capitol, where a panel of lawmakers met Monday to begin a two-day discussion on what vouchers could mean for the state.
It’s the latest move in the Texas Legislature’s long battle over Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs. Early last year, Gov. Greg Abbott told state lawmakers that passing an ESA program – which would allow parents to use public funds to cover costs associated with private education – was a top priority for the 2023 legislative session.
But after months of fierce battles over the program at the Capitol – including four special sessions, marathon hearings, protests and intense pressure from the governor – state lawmakers closed out 2023 without approving vouchers.
It’s now expected to be one of the biggest topics the Legislature will tackle when it reconvenes in January.
The point of this week’s hearings are to “evaluate the use of Education Savings Accounts in other states and make recommendations for a Texas program,” said Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, who chairs the Texas House Committee on Public Education.
Rep. Brad Buckley, chair of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Public Education, speaks during a hearing at the Capitol.
The committee heard invited testimony from people involved in voucher programs in other states.
Tina Kaetzel, the Executive Director of the Indiana Education Scholarship Account, read lawmakers a quote from a mother who uses money from the program to homeschool her daughter.
“The ESA has been our Education eutopia. It’s not a good thing — it's necessary,” Kaetzel said.
Patrick J. Wolf heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. He told the panel that in order to have a successful program, lawmakers had to make sure it accomplished three things.
“First: They need to attract a large and diverse set of high quality education providers. Second: They must provide information to parents to help them act as informed consumers of education. Third: They should prioritize serving disadvantaged students while eventually offering school choice to all K-12 students,” Wolf said.
But public school advocates who oppose vouchers painted a very different picture. Speaking at a press conference before Monday’s hearing began, several said vouchers were part of a ploy to destroy public schools.
“Public education in Texas is on a path toward complete disarray and this is by design. The Abbott crowd is deliberately going beyond just dismantling our public schools but are actually hell bent on sabotaging the actual existence of public education itself,” said Carl Jones, a member of the Texas Democratic Rural Caucus.
(It should also be noted that rural Republicans in Texas have historically opposed programs that would divert funds from public schools.)
Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina agrees. Molina pointed to how Gov. Abbott tied increased funding for teacher salaries to the passage of ESAs late last year.
“Instead of funding our public schools, he held hostage money for our students and our educators and said no money unless I get vouchers,” Molina said.
Hearings are expected to continue all day on Tuesday.
What’s behind Texas’ battle over vouchers
While Texas lawmakers have historically opposed voucher-like plans, some state Republicans have consistently attempted to enact a law that would give tax dollars to families who want to educate their children outside of Texas’ public school system.
David DeMatthews, an associate professor at the College of Education at UT Austin, said he believes Republicans are pushing this policy change not because they want to, but because they’re being paid to.
“All the politicians that support vouchers – that have even spent 15 minutes studying it – the only reason why they're doing it is because they're getting significant campaign contributions from very powerful donors,” he said.
DeMatthews said he believes that money is also being used to trick the public into supporting the initiative.
“There’s a group of people purposely, because the evidence is really clear, misleading families,” he said.
DeMatthews says the strategic deception has led to the results seen in a recent University of Houston poll that shows the majority of Texans want vouchers. The poll received widespread media coverage when it was released last month.
Jim Granato, Dean of UH’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, helped conduct the poll. He said the results show that Black and Hispanic families in Texas want something like ESAs to help them provide a better education for their children.
“Within low-income communities, minority communities – Black and Hispanic in particular – you see greater support for giving parents options beyond the public school they’re in,” Granato said.
But TSTA President Ovidia Molina said that none of the Texas Legislature’s past proposals for voucher-like programs included enough money to make those options a reality.
“When vouchers come out in other states, they don’t help cover all of tuition. So it is still an unattainable promise for some of our students to say that they will go to a private school,” Molina said.
For instance, the state’s most recent voucher proposals would’ve given parents around $10,000. According to Private School Review, the average cost of K-12 Private Schools in Texas is $11,500.
DeMatthews said that, while some families may have the extra funds to make up the difference, the low-income families Granato and Molina are talking about may not. And private schools could simply raise their tuition costs.
As for the Black and Hispanic families in UH’s poll who supported a voucher proposal, DeMatthews said he thinks the results would be different if they knew more about the history of vouchers.
