SAN ANTONIO – Legislation on school vouchers continues to make its way through the Texas House of Representatives.
A committee meeting on public education earlier this week lasted for 15 hours.
One of the big topics discussed is whether the school voucher amount would fully cover private school tuition and how families will make up the difference if needed.
House Bill 3 is about families receiving Education Savings Accounts to offset the cost of private and homeschooling. This initiative is already in place in other states, such as Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and several others.
The bill is estimated to create Education Savings Accounts for 100,000 students in Texas.
If the bill is passed, it could provide families between $2,000 and $11,500 per year depending on whether their child is homeschooled, homeschooled with a disability, or if they will attend a private school and if they have a disability.
A recent House committee meeting about the bill included 15 hours of community input.
“I’m speaking today to ask that all parents be given the opportunity to send their child to the school of their choice,” one student said in favor of the bill. “The establishment of this education savings program would enable parents to make this reality. With this bill, our families will be able to chart their own educational future.”
“IDRA opposes House Bill 3 because it does create a constitutionally inefficient and inadequate educational program that will almost certainly have a discriminatory impact on our state’s most historically underserved and vulnerable student populations,” Paige Duggins-Clay with IDRA said.
The National Center for Education Statistics lists 82 private schools in Bexar County. KSAT located the yearly price for approximately 30 of these private schools.
Many of these private schools’ starting rates are between $4,000 and $15,000 per year. That price can increase to a range of $21,000 to $34,000 per year.
For context, the annual tuition at Texas A&M University-San Antonio is approximately $15,000.
“The question for us is, should we make the private schools waive the remainder,” one representative proposed. “They’re getting 10 grand that they weren’t going to get before.”
KSAT reached out to several private schools about their stance on school vouchers.
Keystone Private School sent KSAT the following statement in part:
“If a final version passes both houses and is signed by Gov. Abbott, we will analyze, discuss, and decide whether or how this might change things for us.”
The yearly price to attend Keystone is between $16,400 and $26,470, according to the school’s website.
Saint Mary’s Hall, another private preparatory school in San Antonio, sent KSAT the following statement in part:
“Without knowing the specifics of how the Legislature plans to execute the proposed program, it is difficult to comment … if the funds are given directly to families, and families then make tuition payments to the schools from their personal banking accounts, schools would not know the source of those funds.”
The Saint Mary’s Hall statement continued, “If the vouchers are payments made directly to schools from the state of Texas, that would be a very different scenario that we would have to look at closely. As I mentioned, we believe the great value of an SMH education is rooted in our independence and our freedom to make the best decisions for our School.”
The yearly price to attend Saint Mary’s Hall is between $18,848 and $34,042.
Tuesday’s committee meeting on school vouchers was left pending with no vote. House Bill 3 would have to pass in the House to take effect for the next school year, and Governor Gregg Abbott would need to sign off on the bill.
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