AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As the next legislative session approaches, Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority of Education Savings Accounts appears closer to becoming reality.
Abbott calls ESAs “school choice,” but opponents often describe the plan as “school vouchers.” Names aside, the debate is about letting parents use public funds to help pay for private education.
The idea of using state money to subsidize part of families’ private school expenses has been a political lightning rod in Texas for years, but the legislature is friendlier to it than ever before. After a year of legislative impasses, Abbott utilized his pulpit and campaign war chest to wage electoral war on skeptical Republicans, successfully replacing many longtime rural lawmakers with newcomers sympathetic to his school choice goals.
“The Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass School Choice,” Abbott touted on X after the May primary runoffs. “Congratulations to all of tonight‘s winners. Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.”
The Chair of the Senate Education Committee told Nexstar he is aiming for a “universal” plan — any family who wants to take advantage of an “education savings account” to help pay for their child’s private or home-schooling would be able to do so.
“We plan on coming back with a very strong bill, even stronger than last time around, and I think we’ll have the support,” State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said. “We’re on our way. We have many new friends to work with in the house after this election cycle.”
Last year, Creighton championed a bill that would spend half a billion dollars to give $8,000 ESAs to at least 40,000 families. Ninety percent of that money was reserved for low-income families and educationally disadvantaged students. Families of all kinds, even those with children already in private school, could have taken advantage of the remaining 10%.
Lawmakers may no longer feel the need to temper their next bill and intend to make it more widely available.
Creighton did not specify how expensive the next ESA plan will be, but he said the legislature will start with a definite appropriation of money to come in tandem with the bill’s passage.
Creighton promised the legislature would pass public school budget increases and teacher pay raises alongside an education savings accounts program. Last year, public school money fell victim to the impasse over ESAs because the Senate and the Governor insisted on passing both. They ended up passing neither.
Next session, both efforts will get to the governor’s desk, Creighton said.
“I don’t really separate them out in my mind, because it is what will set our Texas students up to be the most successful in the future.”
Creighton said student outcomes should outweigh concern about the impact ESAs could have on public schools.
“Those worries should be more focused on what all Texas students need to be successful, instead of protecting money, power, control and institutions,” Creighton said.
Democrat vows to fight ‘bad public policy’ of ESA plan
Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping to cobble together another bipartisan coalition to oppose any form of “school choice” – though the math will be harder for them this time.
What I focus on is where the members of the House are on this issue, and right now, the members are all over the place, State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin told Nexstar.
“You’ve got a sizable bipartisan coalition that are opposed to private school voucher scams. That’s the same coalition that stood together Republicans and Democrats to protect funding for our neighborhood public schools across the state, and then you’ve got some newer members who may be open to some kind of voucher, but they can’t agree on what that voucher looks like,” Talarico added. “So I really don’t see the governor having the votes for a universal, large scale voucher.”
WATCH – Full interview with Rep. Talarico:
Public school districts and Democratic lawmakers argue that public money is best invested into the public school system, and because district funding is based on student attendance, any form of private school stipend would reduce their resources.
“Private school voucher scams are bad public policy,” Talarico said. “Texans want us to fully fund our public schools and lower property taxes. Those are the two things I hear the most, and the fact is that a private school voucher scam would decrease funding for our local schools and increase property taxes.”
“We still believe in public education, we believe in accountability for taxpayers, and we believe in being good stewards of our public funds. Vouchers don’t do any of that,” Talarico said. “They allow for wealthy special interests to siphon off billions of dollars from our neighborhood schools and make money off of our kids.”
Rural Republican raises ‘philosophical issue’ with ESA proposal
Rural Republicans like State Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston came out against the Governor’s plan after raising concerns about how it could affect education in their districts.
“I serve over 30 school districts, and they are pretty much all small, rural districts, and in those districts, the school is the center of the community. If those communities lose their schools, they lose their communities in many, in many cases,” VanDeaver said.
After VanDeaver voted against the ESA bill in 2023, Gov. Abbott backed a candidate challenging the incumbent Representative in the 2024 Republican primary election. The election went to a runoff, which VanDeaver won with 54% of the vote.
VanDeaver said the political pressure has not changed his position on ESAs.
“I’m always open to discussion. That’s how we get things done in the legislature,” VanDeaver said. “But you know, given my background and just my experience with public education, I just have a philosophical issue with many of the ideas behind a school voucher program.”
Before being elected to the Texas House in 2014, VanDeaver served as a vocational agriculture teacher, a school principal and the superintendent of the New Boston Independent School District.
WATCH: Full interview with Rep. VanDeaver:
VanDeaver believes that private schools that take ESA money should be required to accept all students and that the ESA should cover the full cost of tuition.
“I believe we need to do everything we can to create a level playing field with whoever is getting state funding,” VanDeaver explained. “To me, a school’s ability to hand select students who they choose to educate creates a very unlevel playing field…. I certainly want to do everything we can to eliminate any kind of, you know, unlevel playing field or system that creates winners and losers.”
Despite his opposition, VanDeaver emphasizes that he’s open to discussion.
“I know this is a subject, an issue that is that is highly important to the Governor and certainly I want to work with the Governor on this and every other issue,” VanDeaver said. “But, you know, Texas is a big state, and I have to believe there’s room in this state for at least two different opinions on an issue like school vouchers.”
“I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House, with colleagues and, you know, in the Senate and certainly the Governor’s office, to craft a bill which, by the way, we have not seen at this point, but to craft a bill that is good for the state of Texas and certainly good for the school children of Texas,” VanDeaver added.
Lawmakers expand ‘incredibly popular’ Arizona program
Texas could soon become one of a growing number of states to fund a program to help parents pay for private education. Arizona has had a program in place for several years. The program is popular, but concerns about cost and accountability remain.
In 2022, Arizona lawmakers voted to expand the Empowerment Scholarship Account, an existing school choice program, into a universal voucher plan, open to any school-age child.
“At the time, there were about 12,000 kids in the program. Today, the current enrollment is 83,032 kids. So it’s been incredibly popular,” explained Mary Jo Pitzl, politics reporter with the Arizona Republic.
As more students opt into the program, Pitzl noted concerns about the impact on public schools.
“We have school districts, especially on the elementary level, that are seeing a drop in enrollment,” Pitzl said. She cited recent decisions by school districts in the Phoenix area to close campuses, in part due to declining enrollment.
“There are other factors as well, changing demographics, where people live, etc, but the voucher program is seen as a big reason for that,” Pitzl said. “So that hurts public schools, because they lose a kid here, a kid there, and over time, you just can’t sustain keeping all of your schools open because of that enrollment loss.”
WATCH – Full interview with Mary Jo Pitzl:
The intent of expanding the program was to give options to children enrolled in underperforming schools. Pitzl said that results have been mixed.
“It’s not clear that that’s the kids that are being served by this program. We have a lot of pretty well-to-do families and, you know, median-income families in the program, as best we can tell,” Pitzl said.
Pitzl reiterated that, so far, the program is popular with the public in Arizona.
“We haven’t seen much support for efforts to roll this back. There was a petition drive, a citizen initiative drive two years ago that aimed to do just that. They couldn’t get enough signatures,” Pitzl said.
“So if you use that as a barometer of, you know, public sentiment about this, I guess people are okay with it.”