State of Texas: Senate sends education savings account bill to Governor Abbott ...Middle East

AUSTIN (Nexstar) - Legislation to let Texas parents to use public dollars to help pay for private education has been sent to Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas Senate voted 19-12 Thursday to agree to changes made by the Texas House on Senate Bill 2. The vote sends the bill to create a $1 billion education savings account program to the governor's desk to be signed into law.

State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, authored SB 2, after carrying similar legislation that failed to pass in previous sessions. This year, as in previous sessions, opponents of the bill raised concerns that the ESA program primarily benefits wealthier families at the expense of students in public schools.

The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released a statement after the vote, calling the bill "a deeply flawed voucher scheme."

"Let’s be clear: SB 2 is not about 'school choice.' It’s about public subsidization of private schools’ choice," the statemen read. "It is a step backward for Texas, jeopardizing the very system that supports the overwhelming majority of our children and abandoning our constitutional responsibility to provide every child with a quality public education."

Creighton has called that criticism a "manufactured narrative."

"There are 74 school choice programs across the country, nearly 34 states now. One thing that we know for sure from the data is that student outcomes increase, safety increases, college readiness increases," Creighton said in a interview after the vote.

"We want Texas students to have those same opportunities, and we're going to do our best to deliver on those. So I'm very comfortable with where we've landed for the students that need help the most," Creighton added.

During the debate before the vote, Senators on opposite sides of the aisle raised concerns about aspects of the legislation. Lubbock Republican Charles Perry worried about the potential of online-only schools getting ESA funds.

"I think we've all understood what online instruction is and is not and it's not the answer to educate 99.9% of the kids," Perry said. Despite that concern, Perry maintained support for passage of SB 2.

"We want students in person learning to the greatest extent that we possibly can. But online learning is also very important as well," Creighton said of the discussion on the Senate floor with Sen. Perry. "We have students that have been victims of human trafficking, that have been victims of bullying, that have survived fentanyl, that have certain special needs, where those online learning opportunities are important and they're included in the legislation."

Another concern over the House's version of SB 2 was a conflict of interest amendment the Texas House stripped from the bill. The amendment, which was first proposed last session by State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, prevents lawmakers who passed the bill from participating in the program.

"Fast forward two years, that amendment was no longer called the Gutierrez amendment because Senator Creighton thought it was a good idea, and thank you for that Senator Creighton. It became our amendment at that point," Gutierrez said. "In the dark of the night in the committee substitute that was stripped out. Don't need to get into who stripped it out and why, but it was stripped out. House Democrats tried to put that amendment back in to no avail."

While closing on his bill, Creighton said, "you may be surprised and we could suspend (the rules) on Monday and bring that policy back in a separate bill, so stay tuned on that."

The ESA program is expected to roll out for the 2026-27 school year. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol for the next session in 2027. Creighton indicated that the legislature will revisit ESAs at that time to make sure the program is working as intended.

"What we've seen from data across the nation is for a new school choice plan like Texas will have, we need to build an appropriate runway with the right kind of supports and the framework to truly help the families with a successful launch," Creighton said. "So our opportunities within Senate Bill 2 for our families across the state, that will start in '26 and '27 to make sure that there's appropriate time for the Comptroller to build this program. So we'll be back in session in January of '27 to make any needed adjustments or calibrations, as we always do with any bill that we pass."

Getting an ESA bill through the legislature is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of full-court press from Abbott. He first declared the proposal an emergency item in the 2023 legislative session, but couldn't get it through the Texas House of Representatives. Later that year, he called four special sessions -- two of them with the specific intent to create ESA legislation -- but could never get enough support.

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

For Creighton, the push for legislation like SB 2 has been in the works for more than a decade. With the finish line in sight, he reflected on what he hopes the legacy of this legislation will be.

"We know who this bill is going to be helping, and we're so happy to be at this point in time to see the passage of the legislation, and the bill soon will be headed to the governor's desk and these families that are going to get help from this expanded option in education, just seeing their faces and understanding the potential and future for these kids is all I'll ever need as a legislator when I look back on my career," Creighton said.

'We will use the tools we have' - Democrats delay votes on constitutional amendments

Leading up to the anticipated Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) vote earlier this month, the Texas Tribune reported more than 50 House Democrats threatened to vote against every proposed constitutional amendment if Republicans didn't help them put the ESA legislation to a public vote.

The vote to pass mostly followed party lines. On the Republican side, only former Speaker Dade Phelan, R–Beaumont, and Gary VanDeaver, R–New Boston, voted against the bill.

On Tuesday, the House was scheduled to discuss -- and likely vote on -- House Joint Resolution 31. The relatively non-controversial constitutional amendment -- which unanimously passed the House Ways & Means Committee -- would allow the legislature to better define property tax exemptions for farmers. Instead of being brought for debate, Speaker Dustin Burrows postponed the vote.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote from both chambers of the Texas legislature before heading to voters, meaning 51 of the 62 Democratic House members can kill the proposed amendment without any Republican dissenting.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote from both chambers of the Texas legislature before heading to the voters, meaning 51 Democratic House members can kill a proposed amendment without any Republican dissenting.

"Democratic members of the Texas House may be in the minority, but we will use the tools we have to protect the independence of the House and ensure the voices of the millions of Texans we represent are heard and respected in this chamber," a representative with the House Democratic Caucus said in a statement.

However, just because the ESA vote passed without a public referendum, doesn't mean there isn't room for compromise according to a representative with the House Democratic Caucus. They say they're working with Burrows to find areas of cooperation; including bringing more Democratic bills to the House floor.

To get the gavel, Burrows needed support from 49 Democrats and 36 Republicans to defeat Rep. David Cook, R - Mansfield, who was supported by the Texas Republican Party. He faced his first authority challenge two weeks ago, as a motion to remove him from the speaker's chair was overwhelmingly voted down. Now, it appears he faces a challenge from members of the party who helped put him at the dais.

High-priority bills threatened

The House Democrats are open to a compromise where they would vote for constitutional amendments. But if no such deal is made, they could kill plenty of high-profile bills.

Among them are a pair of high-profile bail reform bills which Gov. Greg Abbott declared an emergency item this session. Senate Joint Resolution 1 would require the denial of bail for undocumented residents charged with a felony, and Senate Joint Resolution 5 would allow the denial of bail for defendants accused of first-degree felony sexual offenses -- defendants accused of violent offenses or defendants accused of continuous human trafficking.

While both bills passed with bipartisan support, it's unclear if they had enough Democratic votes in the Texas House -- potential protests set aside.

Abbott's Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris responded to Nexstar in a statement Wednesday, saying, "The Democrats' temper tantrum will not stop Republicans in the House from doing the right thing and passing good bills for the people of Texas. If Democrats want to stand in the way of tax relief, water investments and bail reform, we wish them luck explaining that record to Texans."

Later Wednesday, the House pushed forward with a vote on a proposed amendment, despite the stand by Democrats.

As the Texas House debated bipartisan House Joint Resolution 72, a proposed amendment to the Texas constitution, State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, stepped up to the microphone with a question for the bill's author, State Rep. Candy Noble, R-Murphy.

"I fully support this resolution," began Wu, the chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said. HJR 72 grants property tax relief for family members of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), if they own their family member's homes in their name.

"I called you last night and asked you to just have a brief delay in this bill, correct?" Wu asked.

"Yes," Noble replied.

"You agreed and you gave me your word that you would delay just briefly," Wu said.

"I did, and after talking with my IDD constituents I decided to choose them and I apologize that that did not happen," Noble replied.

The exchange came after a constitutional amendment discussion was delayed on Tuesday. Ahead of a vote on Senate Bill 2 -- the education savings accounts bill -- the Texas Tribune reported that Democrats were threatening to vote against all proposed constitutional amendments if Republicans didn’t help them put the ESA legislation to a public vote.

When HJR 72 got to a vote, 90 members voted in favor, two against with 51 members registering as 'present, not voting' (PNV). Among the 51 PNVs, 50 were Democratic House members with the 51st being Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows, who typically only breaks ties.

While 100 votes are needed to pass joint resolutions/constitutional amendments, HJR 72 wasn't killed by the vote, but rather sent to a third reading where it will need 100 votes. The third reading was scheduled for Thursday, but after Wednesday's vote, Noble motioned to move the vote to Monday.

"Maybe I'm being told we are going to vote it out"

HJR 72 wasn't the only proposed constitutional amendment on the House docket Wednesday. A couple hours prior, State Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, appeared unsure if he should bring forward Senate Joint Resolution 3 which, in conjunction with Senate Bill 5, would create the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

"(SB 5) has a constitutional amendment that's attached to it which we're not going to vote on today. We're going to do like the other constitutional amendments," Craddick said before turning to State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston.

"We got the votes, we got the votes," Thompson, a co-sponsor on the bill with Craddick, told him.

With a collection of State Representatives gathered near the Speaker's desk, the microphone picked up one saying "the Ds are deciding."

After SB 5 advanced to a third reading, Craddick ultimately decided to postpone the debate of SJR 3 to Monday.

Gov. Abbott was asked about the move at a news conference for the signing of the first bill of the session, which will create the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office. At the time Abbott said he had not yet heard of the move to postpone debate, but he did not expect it to derail priority legislation.

"I have no doubt that when the sun sets on this session, it's going to be viewed as one of, if not the most successful sessions we've seen in more than a decade," Abbott told reporters.

Data shows how far school choice funds will go with private special education programs in Texas

At Rawson Saunders School, administrators use almost every inch of the campus as a classroom. The head of school, Laura Steinbach, explained they converted the main office kitchen into additional classrooms because they ran out of space.

The Tarrytown private school serves students with dyslexia. A walk through the campus reveals rooms where students are learning: a student working one-on-one with an Academic Language Therapist and four kids hovering around a table in a math class.

“Our class sizes are unheard of,” Executive Director Laura Steinbach said.

Rawson Saunders is one of four private schools in Austin that serve students with disabilities. These schools have been at the center of pitches from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican leaders pushing for a bill that would allow taxpayer dollars to go to private schools.

According to a KXAN analysis of tuition information, even with financial help from the state, some private schools will still be out of reach, physically and financially, for low-income students with disabilities without significant financial aid from the private sector.

Senate Bill 2 would establish a school voucher-like program in Texas, known as Education Savings Accounts, or ESA. The program that the Comptroller's Office would run would provide $10,000 a year to participating students and a minimum of $11,500 a year to participating students with disabilities. The money can be put towards tutors, uniforms, school supplies and private school tuition.

The latest version of SB 2 allows special education students to access up to $30,000 to put towards their education. The amount will be determined by the student's Individual Education Plan, or IEP, which is a plan that lays out accommodations, services, and other needs of students with disabilities and is based on a special education evaluation.

The ESA sets no limits on the income of the families who can receive the funds. Rep. Talarico, R-Austin, points out billionaire Elon Musk's children could technically apply, even though the bill prioritizes students with disabilities and those from low-income families to receive an ESA first.

Our team reviewed tuition information from the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission and identified 52 accredited private schools in the state that specialize in serving students with disabilities. Ten of those schools do not post their tuition prices online and did not respond to KXAN’s request for information.

But of the 42 that did, data shows the yearly $11,500 ESA allotment under SB 2 for students with disabilities would only fully cover tuition at three of those schools.

12,000+ Texas kids sent to court for missing class, no one tracks what happens next

However, the private schools become more affordable if the student is able to secure a higher ESA amount. The maximum $30,000 allotment would fully cover tuition at 26 of those schools -- 62 percent of those that post their tuition amount.

Rawson Saunders teaches elementary and middle school-age children, all of whom must have a dyslexia diagnosis. According to the school’s website, it is not equipped to serve students who require significant accommodation and support related to behavior and conduct.

The tuition is more than $37,595 a year, not including fees.

“If you have 200 students and 92 faculty and staff – you can do the math and say, wow – that’s an expensive organization,” Steinbach said. “We don’t have a Jumbotron, but we do have a lot of human beings to take care of, and that makes the tuition pretty high.”

Concerns of a false hope

Texas Disability Rights Senior Policy Specialist Steven Aleman said SB 2 and similar bills create a false sense of hope for the state’s poorest families – and for students with disabilities.

“The reality is that there is such a small handful of schools that are really good at meeting their needs, and their capacity to expand is sort of very unlikely they can turn from serving 20 students to 200 students in a year or two,” Aleman said.

‘The consequences were dire’: Republican lawmaker alludes to political pressure over school choice vote

Under SB 2, which passed a House vote last Thursday, private schools are not required to admit students who receive an ESA and they are not required to provide additional financial aid or scholarships to students who can’t make up the difference in costs.

Steinbach said her school is uncompromising when it comes to class sizes and student-teacher ratios. She worries about the strings that could be attached to taking state dollars.

When asked about a scenario where 20 students with ESAs apply to the school, all of them unable to pay more than the $11,500 voucher allotted to them, she said admitting the students would require intensive fundraising.

“We have a lot of families already on financial aid, so if we have 20 new families coming in that also need financial aid and they need a substantial amount of support, then there are two answers: there is the now and the later. It means now we probably couldn’t serve all of them. The later means we need to build toward increasing our financial aid accounts, so we have more money to give,” Steinbach said.

Capitol School of Austin is another private school in Central Texas that serves students who learn differently. The school, which has been around for over 30 years, specializes in intensive speech, language and learning services.

The tuition ranges from $18,675 to $23,113 a year.

"I think our school-aged kids, they end up finding us because they might be struggling a bit in a traditional learning environment with a large group setting, and that is where our small learning environments come into play," Capitol School Speech Pathologist Jessica Epstein said.

Epstein says right now, the school has more questions than answers about the looming school choice program.

“I think it will be really important for parents to really do their due diligence and make sure that the schools that are maybe appearing can actually offer the services that they are saying that they can offer,” Epstein said.

The non-profit, which offers lower tuition prices compared to other schools serving students with disabilities, shared a similar sentiment to Steinbach about the limitations of the school in accepting a large number of students requiring substantial financial aid.

“We wouldn’t be able to run the program the way that we do,” Epstein said. “We do have scholarship dollars that we allocate. And we'll continue the same way that we always have in the past.”

12-foot hole, 10-foot rope

Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, attempted to amend the ESA legislation during the nearly 11-hour House vote on S.B. 2. The change would have required the state to pay the full tuition amount, up to $30,000, for students whose families' yearly income is at or below 200% of the country’s poverty guidelines — $53,300 a year for a family of three.

“What you are doing and professing is to give them a 10-foot rope, and they are in a 12-foot hole. And so, how do you expect they get out of it?” Dutton said.

Texas House passes education savings accounts program

Rep. James Frank challenged Dutton, saying the average tuition for a private school in Texas is $9,700.

“Pretending that we can’t somehow give people options at the dollar amount we have – we truly can,” Frank said.

 To which, Dutton said, “So your argument is: let them all go to average private schools?”

KXAN analyzed tuition information from accredited private schools across Central Texas and found that the 10,000 ESA for students without an IEP would not fully cover 72% of private high school tuition rates. Eleven percent of Central Texas schools that teach high school students don’t post their tuition information at all.

Our analysis also shows private schools are mostly clustered in metro areas in and around Austin, with some of the most affordable schools in rural areas.

Llano Christian Academy, which accepts students from Pre-K through high school, charges $5,200 per year. It is also the only private school in Llano County accredited by one of the 19 agencies recognized by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission, or TEPSAC.

Blanco, Caldwell, Lampasas, Mason and San Saba counties don’t have any private schools accredited by one of those agencies, according to TEPSAC.

More Central Texas school districts making cuts due to funding issues

It’s unclear what will happen to students with an ESA who are unable to find a private school that will admit them, or if they cannot come up with the additional funds to pay for the school.

SB 2 outlines how students could lose eligibility if they re-enroll in public or open-enrollment charter schools. It creates a waiting list of other eligible students. At least 20% of spots in the ESA program can be allocated to students from families earning above 500% of the poverty guidelines, which translates to an annual income of $133,250 for a family of three.

Despite her concerns about the obligations that could come with accepting state dollars – specifically any requirements to stop focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion or mandating testing – Steinbach is excited about more parents considering educational alternatives that may be better for their child.

“Truthfully – I am afraid of the impact on education,” Steinbach said. “The concept is amazing – to be able to give money to families that they can devote to schools that make sense for their families. What I worry about is the students whose families are not in a position to take advantage of those funds, and that is a lot of families.”

Texas Democrats allege new public school ratings 'deceptive' and 'harmful'

Accountability ratings from two school years ago show Texas public schools saw a decline in performance. A group of Texas Democrats argue the scores are unreliable and inaccurate, but the head of the state's public schools said the assessments are fair.

The Texas Education Agency released the ratings from the 2022-2023 school year on Thursday, which give schools an A through F rating based on metrics of student achievement, school progress, and how the school closes gaps between different student groups. Legal battles delayed the release of the information for years after school districts sued the agency arguing it did not give proper notice of how it was going to change the rating system.

The data shows 44% of the schools stayed the same letter rating, 13% increased to a better rating and 43% dropped to a lower rating.

"Schools didn't grow students as rapidly as they had the year before," Mike Morath, the Commissioner of the TEA, explained to reporters in an online news conference.

Members of the Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus met with Morath Thursday morning at the Capitol to discuss the scores and their concerns. Immediately following the meeting the lawmakers held a news conference where they alleged the scores were meant to discredit public schools on the same day the Texas Senate gave the final approval on school choice legislation.

"That is a plan to rob our schools of their resources and hand them over to the profiteers so they can make money off of money that should be going to educate our kids," State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D - Austin, said.

The group of Texas Democrats questioned the methodology of the system, which was updated for the 2022-2023 assessment. They allege the new methodology caused some schools to drop from a B rating down to a F.

"They literally changed the goal post," State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D - Houston, said. The group of Democrats argued the assessment does not highlight all the good work public schools have been doing in the past couple of years after COVID-19.

"They have been starved since 2019, they have gone through COVID. They have had to deal with some unimaginable things without any support," State Rep. Aicha Davis, D- Dallas, explained.

Morath disagrees the TEA moved the goal post. He explained the agency is required to update its methodology every five years in order to "make Texas a national leader in preparing students for post-secondary success." He also argued the new methodology did not force schools to have a lower grade than they would have gotten with the previous methodology.

The ratings for the 2023-2024 have also not been released as they are pending in a separate judicial proceeding. Morath argued earlier this week that the raw data used to calculate the rating for schools is available for local school boards to review and make public to parents. The lawsuit only prevents TEA from releasing those numbers.

Hinojosa said the House Committee on Public Education will most likely discuss an accountability bill, House Bill 4, next week that could lead to changes in how Texas rates its public schools.

"When we see how broken, and how there's no trust in this accountability system, that we remake one that makes sense," Hinojosa said.

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