Ahead of pivotal vote, Texas leaders share unfiltered thoughts on future of education

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — This week, a two-and-a-half-year saga over the future of Texas education may come to an end. Two consequential pieces of legislation are expected to be taken up on the House floor.

Most eyes are on Senate Bill 2, which would create an education savings account (ESA) program to allow families to help pay for private school with taxpayer dollars.

In conjunction, the House will likely vote on House Bill 2, which increases funding for public schools. However, many critics say HB 2 does not fund public schools enough, and it would instead be beneficial to put money earmarked for an ESA program into public school finance.

Here’s your ultimate guide to ESA legislation, which supporters often refer to as school choice, as it heads to a vote.

What does the Education Savings Account bill do?

SB 2, which will likely head to the House floor this week, has changed dramatically since the Texas Senate passed it as its first bill of 2025.

For those who get admitted to the program, the initial version of SB 2 would give them $10,000 a year to a student who attends an accredited private school in Texas. The bill would provide $11,500 for students with disabilities and $2,000 for students who are homeschooled.

The initial version also prioritized including as many middle-class families as possible by only having one “low-income” requirement. To be classified as low-income under the Senate’s version of the bill, households would have to make less than five times the Federal Poverty Line (FPL).

Using 2025’s FPL, a family of four making under $160,750 would be eligible to qualify as “low-income,” putting themselves in a lottery with all other “low-income” families and families of students with disabilities. The first round of families admitted to the program would draw from this lottery until 80% of the funds are disbursed. The last 20 percent of funds would be drawn from a lottery available to all students.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median Texas family made $76,292 a year between 2019 and 2023, less than half the amount a family of four would need to be qualified as “low-income” by the FPL.

“Is there any other program in the state where we define low income as 500 percent?” state Sen. José Menéndez (D-San Antonio) asked during the floor debate of SB 2 in the Senate.

“I don’t think we want to remove the middle class from an opportunity to be able to have a fighting chance,” state Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) and the bill’s author, replied, adding that the threshold roughly works out to the income of a family of four, with the parents working as a teacher and a firefighter.

In House Bill 3 (HB 3), which was initially considered by the Texas House Committee on Public Education before tabling it for an amended version of SB 2, the funding amount and eligibility requirements were vastly different.

Instead of giving families a flat rate, HB 3 would award admitted families with 85 percent of the estimated amount of funding each public-school student gets if their child enrolls in an accredited private school. According to the Legislative Budget Board’s (LBB) fiscal note, this amount would likely equal $10,330 per student in 2027 — increasing to $10,899 per student in 2030. Admitted home school families would also be eligible for up to $2,000, while students with disabilities enrolled in private school would be eligible for more funding not to exceed $30,000.

HB 3 is also geared a lot more towards low-income families, setting four prioritization buckets. The first bucket would be families who make under five times the FPL whose student has a disability. The second bucket would be families who are at or below two times the FPL, or $64,300 a year for a family of four. The third bucket would be for families between two times the FPL and five times the FPL, and the last bucket is open enrollment. Under HB 3, everyone who applied for bucket one has to be admitted before funds can start being given to bucket two, and so on.

The amended version of SB 2 sent to the Texas House floor took both the funding and eligibility formulas from HB 3. If the House passes SB 2 without amendments, the House and Senate will have to come together to find middle ground on those issues.

The House amended version of SB 2 also added a couple of temporary provisions to counter some of their opponent’s strongest criticisms.

In the first two years of the program, the Comptroller would be required to prioritize students who were in enrolled in public school or a charter school for at least 90 percent of the previous school year. The first two years would also cap the amount of people eligible from bucket four (above five times the FPL) from making up more than 20 percent of the program.

How much would the Education Savings Account program cost?

According to an estimate from the LBB, costs for the ESA program would start at $1 billion (a hard cap) over the next two years but quickly balloon. In the 2028-29 budget, the LBB estimates the program would cost the state more than $6 billion, including the projected $750+ million the state would save by having fewer children enrolled in public schools over the same time period.

The LBB estimates paint a larger picture about how the program might be used. They estimate half of all students currently enrolled in private school will apply, increasing five percent every year. However, these are all just projections, and the true cost of the program (past the first two years) will depend on the program’s demand.

‘One size does not fit all’ — Abbott’s support for Education Savings Accounts

“Texas ranks No. 1 for economic development for 13 years in a row,” Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said when asked about his primary motivation. “I have a responsibility as governor for Texas to rank number one for education for 13 years in a row, and so I will continue my mission until I achieve that goal.”

Abbott said he believes ESA legislation is the way to get Texas to the number one spot in education. In a previous interview with KXAN, he cited Florida, which has its own ESA program, as a model.

“They have the largest school choice program in America, and yet they also have the number one public school system in the United States,” the governor said in an exclusive interview. “You can achieve both, and that’s what Texas wants to do.”

U.S. News & World Report’s education rankings have Florida at number one overall (including higher education), and number 10 when isolated to Pre-K-12 education. The same list has Texas at number 29 in overall education and number 28 in Pre-K-12 education.

Abbott said he has a mandate to start these programs based on his conversations with parents across the state.

“They have a hunger and a need for school choice for their children,” he said. “The reality is one size does not fit all when it comes to education. There are families that have two or three or four kids, and a public school may be right for one, but a private school may be right for another. Home school may be right for a third, and no one knows better what’s right for their child than their own parent.”

He also highlighted families for whom ESAs would be lifechanging.

Shannara Morrison homeschooled her son Gavin in North Carolina before moving to Texas four years ago.

“We started to have issues,” Morrison said. “We went to three different schools, from charter schools to public schools, and it just didn’t work. I had to move to another district in order to find him a school.”

With Gavin leaving elementary school this year, Morrison said she needs him to be in a school where he’s comfortable.

“It’s unfortunate to see your kid go somewhere where you’re trusting him in the hands of somebody else, and he comes back and he has issues: whether it’s with students, whether it’s with the curriculum, or whether it’s with the teacher,” she said. “So, we need the option.”

‘Not school choice, it’s the school’s choice’: Talarico’s opposition

State Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) has become a recognizable face in the Democratic opposition to school vouchers and support of public school funding. A former public school teacher, Talarico taught “in a school so underfunded we didn’t have enough chairs for all the kids,” his campaign website read.

“Private school vouchers are a scam that will take our tax dollars out of our underfunded public schools and give those tax dollars to unaccountable private schools that primarily serve the wealthy few,” Talarico said.

He said he’s concerned low-income families the program is intended to support will be left on the outside looking in.

“I think all of us are for school choice, but this is not school choice — it’s the school’s choice,” he said. “Private schools can deny admission to any kid for any reason they want. So how is it choice when the private school has all the power? How is it choice when a majority of counties in the state of Texas don’t have a single private school in them? How is it choice when private schools don’t have to provide special education services or transportation?”

According to Talarico, truly low-income families may also be barred from participation because many private schools’ tuition cost more than the estimated $10,000 the program would provide.

“If you gave my former students on the west side of San Antonio a $10,000 voucher, there’s still no way they could afford a $20,000 a year tuition bill,” Talarico said. “But here’s the catch — that wealthy family that is already sending their kid to a $20,000 a year private school. They’re eligible for this program, too, and so they’re going to get a discount — a $10,000 discount — at our expense. That’s why I call vouchers ‘welfare for the wealthy.'”

“I serve students experiencing homelessness and in foster care, and my biggest opposition is my students that I serve now will never benefit from this bill,” Bree Rolfe, an employee with a Texas public school district, said. “Parents have choices already, but what about the students whose parents can’t make choices for them, or who don’t even have enough money to put food on the table and in our public schools?”

Talarico and other Texas Democrats said they believe the program will blow a massive hole in the public education budget.

“Go look at the other states that have tried these private school voucher scams,” he said. “They tried it in Arizona, and it blew a giant hole in their state budget. It grew in cost year after year, and it bankrupted their public education budget. They did it in Florida, and 70 percent of the users were wealthier families who already had their kids in private school. They did it in Indiana, and the private schools just raised their tuition and profited off the taxpayers. So, we don’t want this scam in Texas.”

Arizona passed universal school choice in 2022. Dave Wells, the research director for the Grand Canyon Institute (GCI) in Arizona, a nonpartisan think-tank, previously told Nexstar the school choice program contributed to a state budget deficit.

Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who was in office when the legislation passed, previously said the deficit happened after he left office and blamed irresponsible spending by the current legislature.

The program in Arizona is different than the proposals in the Texas legislature. Arizona does not put a cap on how many students can be in the program, while both Texas proposals cap the spending on the program to $1 billion.

Abbott fundamentally disagreed with Democrats’ concerns, saying he’s committed to fully funding public education.

“We’re going to have separate pots of money: one for public schools, one for school choice,” Abbott said. “We’re not going to take a single penny from public schools to pay for school choice.”

“I don’t know what the governor is talking about,” Talarico said in response. “This is all from general revenue, which is all taxpayer funds. It’s all coming from the same pot of money, and I have confirmed with the author the bill that $1 billion that we’re putting toward private school tuition for wealthy families could be going to our underfunded neighborhood schools, and I just think that’s an unconscionable, immoral decision when our schools are struggling to stay open as we speak.”

‘I am in it to win it’: How we got here

Abbott has made ESA legislation one of his top priorities for more than two years.

To start the 2023 regular legislative session, Abbott declared ESA legislation an “emergency item,” allowing lawmakers to take up the issue quicker than normal. However, the Texas House of Representatives repeatedly thwarted ESA legislation, even after Abbott called lawmakers back for multiple special sessions in late 2023 to start an ESA program. In the end, 21 House Republicans joined Democrats to stop the establishment of an ESA program.

Instead of continuing to try and convince the 88th Legislature to pass ESA legislation, Abbott shifted his focus to the 89th Legislature.

“I will continue advancing school choice in the Texas Legislature and at the ballot box, and will maintain the fight for parent empowerment until all parents can choose the best education path for their child,” he said in a statement after the final failed vote. “I am in it to win it.”

He funded the campaign for 15 challengers to Texas House Republicans who voted against ESA legislation, successfully ousting 11 incumbents.

Most of the Republican opposition came from rural lawmakers who have few private schools in their districts, citing concerns the program may reduce public school funding. Abbott said he doesn’t agree with their concerns.

“People may be concerned, ‘Oh gosh, school choice is going to decimate our public schools and destroy them.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” Abbott said. “One, we’re going to fully fund public schools this session, providing more funding than ever before, and a higher teacher pay raise than ever in the history of our state, because we want the best teachers in our classrooms and our public schools.”

Abbott also claimed parents in all areas of the state benefit from school choice.

“Another falsehood is, ‘Well, there’s rural regions in the state of Texas where this simply is not available,’ and that’s untrue in so many regions of the state of Texas that are rural,” he said.

“Athens has a population of about 11,000 or 12,000 people, and yet, they have a private school that parents needed to take their child out of public school because the child at first grade was coming home from school repeating four-letter cuss words,” the governor continued. “Parents knew at that time it violated their values, and they wanted to move their child into a setting that reached his values. And there was a private school like that. They’re in Athens, Texas and Alpine, Texas and small little towns across the state. There are many opportunities for school choice for parents.”

What does the school finance bill do?

While HB 2 passed out of committee 13-2 with bipartisan support, some who voted in favor did so begrudgingly.

“We need another $1,340 per student just to deal with inflation since 2019,” State Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) said two days before voting HB 2 out of committee. “This doesn’t get us there in a time where our school district, our community is looking at school closures and cuts that would be devastating to communities, it’s very disappointing that it is so low.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website, Hinojosa’s estimate is conservative. In June 2019, Abbott signed the bill to increase the per-student allotment to $6,160. BLS estimates that’s now equivalent to $7673.62, meaning schools would need an extra $1,513.62 per student to catch up with inflation. Instead, HB 2 increases the basic allotment by $395 and ties future increases to the growth of property values.

“I do think this bill can be a good step forward — heck I would vote for a $1 increase for public education funding,” Talarico said while discussing HB 2 in committee. He also voted in favor of HB 2. “I want to be careful that we don’t overpromise our constituents because we said that this was a historic school funding bill, but our schools are in a historic hole and this bill does not even catch us up to 2019 funding levels.”

State Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado) serves as chair of the House public education committee and said the basic allotment number is nothing more than a talking point.

“If we had a little math class, we’d say, ‘I bet funding goes up $395 per kid,'” Buckley said. “The reality is the way the system works, it doesn’t. You could put $1,000 in the basic allotment and still have a district that gains $200 a kid. That’s the level of complexity we’re dealing with.”

Overall, the bill dedicates $7.7 billion to public education in Texas. It also dedicates specific funds to be used for teacher pay raises as well as increases the bilingual education allotment and the teacher incentive allotment.