The Republican-priority bill allowing for taxpayer money to pay for private schools is on the cusp of passing after a Texas House panel on Thursday voted the bill out of committee.
The updated proposal that moves to the full House for consideration would prioritize students transitioning from public to private school but prohibit undocumented children from receiving an education savings account, or ESA.
“Texas is within reach of the largest school choice program launch in the nation,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement after the measure advanced.
Thursday, members of the House’s Public Education Committee voted out Senate Bill 2 9-6 with Democrats opposing.
Meanwhile, the legislators also advanced a proposal to increase the base amount of money public school districts receive per-student by nearly $400.
SB 2 would allocate about $10,000 to a student who uses it to pay for private school. Supporters say such a move would allow families to leave failing neighborhood schools and choose a setting that best fits their children.
Opponents of such a plan say it would drain resources from the 5.5 million Texas children who attend public schools.
Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said the focus should be on investing in public schools as only a few families could opt for a private school.
“Our focus should be in investing in what is the right of every student in the state of Texas and not creating this lifeboat for people to leave the system — just a certain few, just a chosen few,” Hinojosa said.
Committee chair Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, tried to use the lifeboat analogy against Hinojosa.
“I’ve never seen anyone jump off of a perfectly good boat, especially for their kids,” Buckley said.
“Except the ship is sinking that has all the other kids in it,” Hinojosa shot back.
“I don’t know about that,” Buckley responded.
Abbott made establishing ESAs a priority this session, pouring political capital into primary races that resulted in more GOP House members supporting such a plan.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Texas Senate, has long been a supporter of it, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has vowed to pass an ESA plan.
Before Abbott can sign the bill into law, the House has to vote out the measure and the Senate must agree to any changes made to the legislation.
House committee members proposed multiple guardrails in a new version of the bill, including a $1 billion spending cap for the first two years.
Budget writers have estimated it would take $1 billion of surplus money to fund such a program. But critics point to a legislative advisory board projection that the bill’s annual cost could balloon to nearly $4 billion by 2030.
Abbott has said those estimates are “based on nothing but fiction.”
A key point of contention Thursday was what the Democrats called a lack of transparency. The committee meeting was not livestreamed by the Texas House, which is the norm — a decision made by Buckley.
At a news conference before the hearing, Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, who serves on the committee and opposes the bill, said the committee’s meeting should be livestreamed so people across the state can watch the committee’s debate.
“Texans deserve to hear about these two bills that will change public education in this state,” Talarico said.
Buckley disagreed the meeting was not public or lacked transparency, pointing out that anyone from the public could attend in person and that journalists were reporting on it.
Some media outlets livestreamed the debate. Buckley noted that it was a formal meeting and not a hearing where public testimony is heard.
Under the Senate bill, families in private schools would receive $10,000 per year per child. Children with disabilities would receive $11,500. Homeschooled students could receive $2,000, and homeschooled students with disabilities would be eligible for $2,500.
Patrick has estimated that about 90,000 students could access the fund.
If applications exceed $1 billion, families could gain a spot via a lottery system, with 80% set aside for public school students from low-income households or with disabilities.
Increasing Texas’ per-student funding
Texas public schools would get a $395 increase to the per-student base allotment under the updated House Bill 2 the committee advanced.
They would receive $6,555 per student, up from $6,160.
The update comes after dozens of public school educators testified in March that the bill’s initial $220 increase would not go far enough.
The Legislature has not increased the base amount of funding campuses receive per student since 2019. The basic allotment would need to rise by $1,300 to keep up with inflation since then, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“We said this was a historic school funding bill, but our schools are in a historic hole, and this bill does not even catch us up to 2019 funding,” Talarico said.
Buckley responded that calculating the effect of the basic allotment increase on schools was more complex than Talarico was presenting.
“You can put $1,000 in the basic allotment and still have a district that gains $200 a kid,” he said. “That’s the complexity we’re talking about.”
A $500 increase was proposed in 2023, but that failed to pass after Abbott said he would veto any bill increasing school funding that did not create an ESA program.
The proposed update to the bill would automatically increase the per-student base funding every two years, tying it to the growth of property values.
The proposal would devote 40% of the basic allotment to teacher pay and include automatic salary increases. Teachers with more than a decade of experience would receive larger raises.
In 2024, Texas teachers made an average salary of $62,500, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The Senate has passed a bill that would give $10,000 raises to teachers with five or more years of experience who work in districts with fewer than 5,000 students. Those in larger districts with five or more years of teaching would get a $5,500 raise. Those with three years of experience would get $2,500 in increases.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
