AUSTIN, Texas — After hours of debate on Wednesday, state senators passed the first bill of the session, Senate Bill 2. SB 2 would create Education Savings Accounts (ESA), that would allow Texas families to use public tax dollars to help pay for private school. The bill cleared the Texas Senate 19-12.
The bill allocates $1 billion that could fund about 100,000 ESAs. Each student would get $10,000, $11,500 if they have a disability and $2,000 for homeschool children.
If the number of applications for the ESAs don’t exceed capacity, all eligible students will be accepted. But if they do exceed capacity, 80% of the ESAs will be filled by lottery for students with a disability or from low-income households. The remaining 20% will also be filled by lottery by all other Texas students.
It is the sixth time the Texas Senate has passed a school choice bill.
Concerns from the Senate floor
State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas), expressed concern that a lottery wouldn’t ensure that truly low-income families would be prioritized in the 80%.
“If they’re in the low-income category, are they treated equally and they have to go into a lottery?” Sen. West said. “If indeed what we’re trying to do is, based on what you said, is to provide them educational opportunity, shouldn’t we be prioritizing those persons within the lower income?”
The author of the bill, State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), said the reason the 80% lottery includes families up to the 500% poverty level is so that middle-class families who are also struggling financially are not left out as well.
Democrats opposing the bill are also concerned that given the number of available seats in private schools, there could be more low-income students applying for an ESA than there are open slots. If that’s the case, or if fewer low-income students apply, the money would go to students already in private schools.
Fraud prevention
Sen. Creighton has previously stated that Senate Bill 2 has the strongest anti-fraud provisions in the country. But another concern from opponents to the bill is preventing fraud.
If SB 2 becomes law, Sen. Creighton says he expects new private schools will open, but Sen. West worries there might not be as much oversight with these new schools popping up.
“Don’t you believe that there should be a minimum number of years that those schools should be in existence to prove that they are worthy of accepting these students and not wasting taxpayer dollars?” Sen. West said.
Sen. Creighton said if they were to put a time limit on institutions that qualify for the funding, that has the potential to prevent families from being able to homeschool.
“There will be new schools, there will be new homeschool opportunities, there will be micro-schools,” Sen. Creighton said. “To require a three-year track record on those would put strings on homeschool opportunities that don’t currently exist.”
‘No strings attached’ to private school funding
The funding for SB 2 would come with no strings attached to private schools, but Sen. Roland Gutierrez, (D-San Antonio), said private schools getting tax dollars should have to follow the state’s safety requirements.
“Now we have public school funding towards those private schools, and you’re saying that they’re not subject to the same requirements, no strings attached … and therefor these kids are using public school money in our private schools now are somehow less safe,” Sen. Gutierrez said.
Sen. Creighton said there could be other bills to address safety in private schools, but it will not be wrapped into ESAs.
“That private school has to come up with its own funding, and it has its own board, they have to make decisions based on their safety for their campus, just like many other components that we’re not delving in this bill on their behalf,” Sen. Creighton said.
What’s next?
Now that the Senate has passed SB 2, the bill is now in the hands of the Texas House of Representatives.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that SB 2 had passed the full Texas Senate. The bill had only passed initially, and had not yet passed the full Senate. The bill passed the Senate just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.