The Texas Senate has passed measures that would increase teacher pay and create education savings accounts. SB 1 would let parents use up to $8,000 in taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools.
Governor Greg Abbott had listed "education freedom" as a priority for the third special session of the Texas legislature. SB 1 would use $500 million in general revenue for education savings accounts.
The bill says up to 40% would go to families whose kids get free lunches, 30% would go to families where the parents earn between 185% and 500% of the federal poverty level and 20% would go to kids with disabilities.
On Friday, Outside Dallas Independent School District's Pinkston High School, Democratic lawmakers and school board members from several districts spoke against the bill.
"Private schools, a lot of them, they don't take special education students. They don't take behavioral students," said Texas State Teacher Association President Angela Davis. "Or what they do is take them, then when they get the funding, they send them back to public education, and we have to educate them with no funding at all."
The group said Texas ranks in the bottom ten states for per-pupil funding and is the tenth least educated state. They say the attrition rate among teachers is also 25% higher than the national average.
"Funding should not be an issue. The money is there. We are sitting on a surplus," State Representative Venton Jones (D-Dallas) said. "Public schools are a bedrock of our community."
"Public schools are the one mechanism we have not only to create an educated population but to take people from all over the world, to open our arms in this country of immigrants, and turn these people into Americans, to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, to learn about the history of our country," Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) said.
Anchia says districts already provide school choice. In Dallas ISD, he says families can choose among a neighborhood school, magnet school or specialty school to pursue career training a student may be interested in.
"That's what kind of choice exists in our system," he said. "If they don't like DISD, they can go to a public charter school system."
Anchia suggested the measure to allow education savings accounts should go before voters. He says a previous attempt was unpopular among members of both parties, saying that shows "Texans don't want it."
"The public school system is what we, as a society, say A: is important and B: is necessary for our survival as a representative democracy," Anchia said. "The founders of the Constitution said that. We need to have a public school system. It's good for all of us. It's part of the social contract. It's what we sign up for."
Lawmakers attending say the text of the bill even acknowledges private schools are not required to adhere to the same levels of transparency or services for kids who have a disability.
State Rep. Mihaela Plesa (D-Plano) cites part of the bill that reads, "a private school is not subject to federal and state laws regarding the provision of educational services to a child with a disability in the same manner as a public
school[.]"
"It says it in the bill they're not held to the same federal standards," Plesa said. "This is all very colorful, flowery language, school choice, education freedom. It's not. We need to read the fine print when we're reading about scams."
The American Federation for Children, an advocacy group that supports school choice, praised the Senate's vote Thursday night.
"They have shown a deep understanding of the transformative power of educational choice. Texas families are watching and deserve bold action. We urge the House to join their Senate counterparts in this historic endeavor, ensuring that every child in Texas has the opportunity to thrive and succeed," the group wrote in an email.
SB 1 now moves to the Texas House. In the regular session, a similar bill passed the Senate but did not advance in the House.
The Texas Senate also approved SB 2, which would provide $5.2 billion for teacher raises and other costs.
At an event organized by the Texas Public Policy Foundation Thursday, Abbott said he would only add a pay increase for teachers to the special session agenda if lawmakers first pass school choice
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