A proposal creating a voucher-like program where public funds could be used towards private schools was passed by the Texas Senate Wednesday, just days after Gov. Greg Abbott made it an emergency item for the current legislative session.
The vote on Senate Bill 2 also comes less than a week since the Texas Senate Education Committee quickly moved the bill forward. SB 2 now heads to the Texas House for consideration.
Texas “deserves to have the biggest launch” of any school choice program in the nation, said bill sponsor Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) speaking from the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon. If ultimately signed into law, SB 2 would potentially cost the state $1 billion to implement.
The legislation would create Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, providing Texas parents with $10,000 of state funds per student to subsidize the costs of private schooling. The bill tacks on an additional $1,500 dollars for children with disabilities.
This isn’t the first time the bill has come up in Texas. In 2023, Democrats and rural Republicans in the Texas House rejected the idea several times during the general session and special sessions that followed.
Lawmakers weigh in on their hopes for — and concerns about — the plan
Opponents of these types of programs claim they divert much-needed funds from public education and weaken state’s school systems.
Sen. Creighton made sure to address these concerns in his opening statement before Wednesday’s debate.
“This program is funded from the surplus it does not come from public education dollars,” said Creighton.
He continued by acknowledging that some people accuse the legislation of using tax dollars to fund private schools, while he said he sees it as primarily helping children in Texas.
“Let’s get this done for who this plan actually serves, students in Texas that need help the most,” Creighton said.
According to the Texas Education Agency, an estimated 24,500 students will make the switch from public to private schools in 2027. But Creighton said his data from the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission shows that 74,000 seats in private schooling will be available.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, told the chamber he worried the bill could lead to prioritizing white students, a hat tip to when vouchers were used by Southern states to get around desegregation orders.
“We’ve got to make certain that a methodology is in place to assure that we are not propping up a system that will be segregated,” West said.
Creighton rejected that assessment, adding that he believes the plan allows students to, “not be trapped by zip code.”
However, West said that isn’t the same as prioritizing minority families.
“It puts them in a lottery with everyone else,” said West. “The priority should be going to kids in low-performing schools.”
What to watch for next on SB 2
Though the bill has safely navigated out of the Senate, there is no telling whether the bill will have as quick of a journey through the Texas House — the chamber where it died several deaths in 2023.
Over the weekend, newly-elected Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) hedged his support for Gov. Greg Abbott’s seven emergency items, which included school choice. He wrote in a X post that the governor and House’s priorities are “clearly largely aligned.”
Burrows’ Senate counterpart, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, has long been a supporter of the proposal. Patrick recently attended a school choice roundtable at the White House with President Donald Trump, just a day after Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Education to prioritize school choice programs.
The creation of a voucher-like program for Texas has been in the works since the 2023 legislative session. The governor has served as its ardent defender — ousting Republican lawmakers who voted against the plan last session by campaigning against them.
Gov. Abbott reiterated his previous sentiments during his State of the State address on Sunday, saying that public schools don’t work for everyone.
“Parents are a child’s first teacher,” he said. “Schools must work for parents, not the other way around.”
SB 2 now heads to the Texas House, which has yet to file its own version of the bill. However, both chamber’s draft budgets filed last month set aside the same $1 billion to fund an eventual ESA program.
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