The Texas Legislature meets for 140 days every two years*. It’s a slim window to pass legislation, and it’s actually slimmer than you think. Much of the action in the Texas House and Senate has yet to begin this session as both chambers wait for Gov. Greg Abbott to release his list of “emergency items.”
Per the Texas Constitution, lawmakers can only pass legislation marked as an emergency item by the governor in the first 60 days of a regular legislative session. We expect Abbott to announce these items this Sunday, Feb. 2, in his State of the State address.
We’ll know then which bills the House and Senate can take up and pass quickly. We expect a private school voucher program to be among those priorities. Where the important bills supporting our Educator’s Bill of Rights — many of which have broad popularity with school employees, parents, and students — land in the governor’s priorities remains to be seen.
*Unless the governor calls lawmakers back for a 30-day special session, which he can do at any time and without limit on the number of special sessions.
Senate Bill 2: Universal Voucher on the Fast Track in the Senate
One week ago, Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) filed Senate Bill 2, that chamber’s priority voucher bill, enumerated in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of legislative priorities. As a reminder, here are the particulars of this voucher iteration:
- Eligibility: SB 2 is a private school voucher program with universal eligibility for every school-aged child.
- Voucher Amount: The voucher would amount to $10,000 per year for students attending accredited private schools, $11,500 per year for students with disabilities, and $2,000 per year for students using a non-private school provider, such as tutoring or courses at a higher education institution.
- Restrictions: SB 2 has income requirements if “excessive” voucher applications are received, requiring that up to the first 80% of slots be reserved for students who were enrolled in public school the prior year and have a disability or have a household income at or below 500% of the federal poverty line. (For reference, currently, 500% of the federal poverty line for a single parent with one child is $105,750 and 500% of the federal poverty line for a family of 6 is $215,750.)
- Accountability: Participating students would be required to take either the state-required assessment or a nationally norm-referenced exam.
- Special Education Accommodations: The bill requires private schools that accept funding via this voucher to post a notice stating that the school is not required to comply with federal special education laws.
The bill was filed last Friday and received its first hearing Tuesday, in the Senate Education K-16 Committee. Well over 130 people signed up to testify, with the majority testifying against the bill. What was most interesting to hear were the myriad reasons people have for opposing this bill and private school vouchers more broadly.
Our members know why our union has always opposed school privatization in any form, and we have worked session after session to educate and articulate the potential for widespread harm to public education and its funding should a voucher pass.
In our latest membership survey, 80% of our K-12 members said they were concerned about the impact of a private school voucher and rapidly expanding charter schools on their neighborhood public school. But Tuesday’s hearing showed that concern over the effects of this voucher proposal isn’t limited to Texas educators; Texans from all walks of life testified, and we want to summarize what we heard from them here:
SB 2 would divert funds from public schools
Both the Senate and the House have set aside $1 billion in their proposed state budgets for a voucher program over the next two years. That is $1 billion not being added to per-student funding for Texas public schools, most of which are in dire financial straits, or put back into the pockets of educators who so often pay for basic supplies themselves. But it doesn’t stop at $1 billion. The fiscal note from the Legislative Budget Board points out that the voucher program will cost a whopping $4 billion per year by 2030.
This potential impact on the 5.5 million children in Texas public schools was a common refrain in Tuesday’s testimony. If Texas schools are cutting bus routes and laying off staff now, the situation is unlikely to improve with the addition of another taxpayer-funded school system.
SB 2 could exacerbate Texas school staffing shortages
Underfunded schools are understaffed schools. We know this because we are living it right now. As we wrote last week, the need for meaningful pay increases for Texas teachers and all school staff is urgent if we have any hope of retaining them or recruiting new qualified educators.
Testifiers brought up this dire reality throughout Tuesday’s hearing. We also discovered another concern within SB 2’s actuarial analysis, which notes that even a small adjustment – like a decrease in projected covered payroll growth, could be enough to endanger the Teacher Retirement System of Texas’s (TRS) actuarial soundness.
Adding a new multi-billion-dollar education system at the expense of increased funding for public education likely will result in a continued educator exodus from Texas schools. Fewer teachers paying into TRS during their careers threatens the ability to support our retired teachers. TRS’s analysis of the bill also notes that an increase in the contribution rate from teachers and the state might be necessary if payroll does not grow as projected following the passage of SB 2.
SB 2 does not ensure adequate accountability and oversight
Private schools are not bound by the same regulatory standards as public schools, which could lead to disparities in the quality and availability of educational services. This is an acute concern for students requiring specialized services, and the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities testified to the possibility private schools could exclude students with disabilities from admission because they are not mandated by federal law to provide the same level of support.
SB 2 does require participating students to take some type of assessment, a welcome step toward ensuring more parity between public and private schools receiving taxpayer dollars. But the bill allows the option for private schools to use STAAR or a nationally norm-referenced exam. STAAR, as we know, is used to grade campuses and districts, providing potential cause for the state to take over their operations, as we’ve seen in Houston ISD. In some districts, STAAR results are also used to decide teacher pay raises. If a school receiving taxpayer funding through a voucher can chart a different accountability course, it begs the question, why can’t public schools?
SB 2 does not adequately fund most families’ educational needs
The maximum amount SB 2 would grant in a voucher to a Texas student is $11,500 per year. While that is significantly more than the $6,160 Texas spends per student in its public schools, that amount is likely inadequate to cover the full cost of private education – including transportation, uniforms, and extracurricular activities – leaving families struggling to pick up the rest.
SB 2 could have an outsized impact on students with disabilities
Students with disabilities have been centered in the arguments for implementing a school voucher, largely because the state has overwhelmingly underfunded special education in public schools for decades, resulting in inadequate support for these students.
But experts from Disability Rights Texas and the Texas Council for Administrators of Special Education were on hand Tuesday to make clear that this proposed voucher may not be the solution families need. As mentioned above, the amount of the proposed vouchers is likely inadequate to cover the true cost of education, especially for students with disabilities who require specialized services.
The unacceptable issues these students face in underfunded public schools would likely be even more acute in private schools, many of which are ill-equipped to handle the full range of disabled students’ needs, resulting in poorer educational outcomes.
SB 2’s voucher program follows in the footsteps of vouchers’ historical discrimination
The historical context of private school vouchers, and their origins, cannot be ignored, something multiple testifiers reminded senators on Tuesday. Following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, school vouchers grew in popularity as a way for white families to avoid integrated public schools. In the South, these vouchers were weaponized by policymakers to dismantle public schools rather than being forced to desegregate them.
This is something many of our leaders and members know from their own experience; Dwight Harris, former Victoria AFT president and educator, spoke about this issue at length before lawmakers and in this op-ed.
SB 2 invites data security and privacy issues for students
One concern that has not received much attention in previous voucher hearings is the complexity of handling sensitive student data within this voucher program. By necessity, should a student transfer out of the public education system, data about that student must be shared between disparate institutions, with varying levels of cybersecurity protocols in place.
SB 2 includes provisions that require compliance with state and federal confidentiality laws for students’ educational information. But because of the increased complexity of implementing this new voucher framework, multiple testifiers raised concerns about the possibility of data breaches and the misuse of personal information, especially for students with disabilities.
SB 2 expands government control over private education choices
Concerns over this proposed voucher aren’t limited to public school advocates. Representatives from the Texas Private School Association and parents from homeschooling community expressed concerns that this voucher program would impose government-mandated standards on private and homeschool education, undermining parental rights and “school choice” instead of expanding either.
With these objections registered, the committee voted Tuesday night, 9-2, to advance SB 2 for a full vote in the Senate. That vote, Patrick said, could come as early as next Wednesday if vouchers are among Abbott’s state emergency items.