The Texas Senate will have its first floor debate on a bill that, if passed, would create a school voucher-like program during this 2025 Regular Legislative Session in Austin. As Blaise Gainey with the Texas Newsroom reports, such a program can go by many names including school choice, vouchers, or education savings accounts, better known as ESA’s. Gov. Greg Abbott has been pushing for such legislation since 2023.
Last week, the Texas Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 2, sponsored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, in Deep East Texas. The legislation would allow families to use $10,000 of state funds per student to pay for the cost of private school tuition, along with cover other approved education expenses. Priority would go to lower-income families and those with children with disabilities.
As Gainey reports, so far, the Texas Senate has been the only chamber to pass the bill in previous sessions, and on this Tuesday, they are expected to do so once again. The bill will also likely draw heated debate again from Democrats, who have been vehemently against the idea, and possibly rural Republicans. Although, Gov. Abbott made sure to get rid of most of those who were against the idea during 2024 election.
The National Education Association (NEA) describes school vouchers as a catastrophic failure. In its NEA Today magazine, a September 20, 2024, article stated that there is “overwhelming evidence showing voucher programs strip funds away from public schools, lack fiscal and academic accountability, and are used primarily by families with children already enrolled in private school.” The NEA is the country’s largest labor union. It represents three million public school teachers and other support personnel, and advocates on members’ behalf.
The Brookings Institution, a well-respected, centrist Washington think tank, which released its research findings on school vouchers in an August 15, 2023 report, concluded, “The last decade of achievement studies have shown negative voucher impacts” and finding, “the larger the program, the worse the results tend to be.
In a December 19, 2024 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), which describes itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, the organization concluded that vouchers harm public schools, and not just financially. Its research cited student test scores from Louisiana’s Scholarship (voucher) Program, assessing that participating students “experienced declining achievement in both language arts and mathematics during the first two years in the program (Mills and Wolf 2023).” But EPI critics are quick to point out the organization’s affiliation with the labor movement, saying it presents left-leaning and pro-union viewpoint.
Despite some unfavorable research findings, voucher programs are passing at record rates across the U.S. with 31 states now taking part, including 11 states with universal programs, in which any student can use public funds to pay for private education, with eight states joining those ranks in the past three years alone.
Back in Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, met with President Donald Trump last Friday. Afterwards he posted a video to X saying Trump is on board with school choice and that he vowed to help get The bill passed in the Texas House too.
