The Committee voted to advance a pair of priority bills to create education savings accounts and to raise how much state money public school districts receive.
BEDFORD, Texas — A Texas House Committee advanced a controversial voucher bill Thursday in a 9-6 vote, moving the priority of Republican Governor Greg Abbott one step closer to becoming a reality.
The proposal to use public tax dollars to pay for some students to attend private school now advances to the full House floor, where it could be the first voucher bill to pass the legislative body.
The proposal now includes a $1 billion spending cap for the first two years of the program and would set aside the majority of the money for students with disabilities and from less wealthy households — a family of four making less than about $156,000 a year, the Texas Tribune reported.
“All this does, it doesn’t make anybody do anything, it simply provides a choice,” said House Public Education Chairperson Brad Buckley (R-Salado).
Under the Senate version of the voucher bill, families would get $10,000 per year in taxpayer dollars to cover the cost of private education. Families with a child with disabilities would get $11,500.
Despite the increased incentive for admitting students with disabilities, private schools are not under the same obligation as public districts to accept all students — which could lead to an imbalance in student population and financing, some advocates warned.
At HEB ISD outside of Dallas, the percentage of students with disabilities has nearly doubled since 2016, district data showed. The level of intervention needed has increased, too, the district said.
“We have some students that require a nurse to sit next to them at all times,” said Rene Riek, the district’s Executive Director for Special Education. “When I first started, we maybe had one every few years, now we have several. That’s a very high level of support to have at all times.”
She said state funding does not cover the cost of her special ed program as is.
“We take it from our local budget; it’s being taken from other areas,” she said. “I can’t even believe the things these teachers and assistants do with the little resources that they have.”
Riek expects the percentage of students who require special education to only increase further as more students qualify — and if vouchers pass — as private schools admit students without disabilities, leaving a higher percentage of special ed students in public districts.
“We’re going to find the funding for it because that’s what that child needs to thrive and be able to come to school,” she said.
Buckley described the bill as a “lifeboat” for students and said his personal experiences with students who had disabilities informed his perspective on the bill. “We prioritize an income level and special needs students over those without special needs [and] based on their income,” he said.
The House committee also advanced a bill Thursday to increase by $395 the base amount of money public districts receive for each student, the Tribune reported.
