On Oct. 9, Governor Greg Abbott ordered a special session to begin in the Texas Legislature with the intention of passing school choice legislation. This special session comes after House Bill 100 — which had a similar goal of implementing a voucher system — failed to pass in the regular legislative session this past summer.
During this session, Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) authored Senate Bill 1. According to the Texas Tribune, SB1 would “create education savings accounts, a voucher-like program that would allow families access [to] $8,000 of taxpayer money to pay for private schools and other educational expenses such as uniforms, textbooks, tutoring or transportation, among other things.”
In an effort to convince skeptical lawmakers to support SB1, Senate Bill 2 has also been introduced in tandem. SB2 would provide a $5.2 billion infusion into the public school system. According to the San Antonio Report, $3.8 billion would be allocated for a one-time teacher salary increase, $400 million for school safety funding and $975 million for other basic funding needs.
SB2 would also increase the allotment per student that districts receive by $75, from $6,160 to $6,235. This falls short of the $1,000 per student increase that many education organizations requested.
Abbott’s endless crusade to pass school choice legislation will only further exacerbate the problems that Texas public schools face. According to Texas AFT, Texas ranks 36th in the nation regarding per-pupil funding in public schools. School choice legislation and voucher programs are extremely expensive and send taxpayer money to schools that are unregulated by the state and receive no public accountability. Dangling public school funding in the faces of Texans with the intention of using it to pass harmful legislation is deceitful and an insult to the valuable educators who struggle to make ends meet while providing one of the most essential services in our nation.
As citizens, we cannot stand idly by while the legislature acts to drain public schools. Texans need more school funding without the quid pro quo of Abbott’s school voucher legislation. We must insist that our state funds public schools and keeps taxpayer money out of unaccountable private institutions.
You can find the contact information for your local representative’s office at house.texas.gov/members/ and senate.texas.gov/members.php.
