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School vouchers among expected topics at Gov. Abbott's State of the State address tonight
Gov. Abbott is giving his State of the State address tonight in San Marcos where he's expected to talk about school vouchers. FOX 7's Kelly Saberi joins us to explain what that means for your child's education.
AUSTIN, Texas - Governor Greg Abbott will deliver the State of the State address in front of his invited guests at Noveon Magnetics Corp. in San Marcos at 7 p.m.
According to Brian Smith, a professor at St. Edward’s University, he could be taking his speech on the road to test out how his ideas resonate with people, rather than just lawmakers.
Smith says one of the big issues he’ll tackle in his speech is school vouchers. Private school vouchers are a concept that historically have failed to become law in Texas. The idea was proposed in 2017, and pushed by George W. Bush and Rick Perry.
Iowa, Arizona and Utah all have passed similar legislation, and this could give momentum to Abbott’s goal of passing a law like this in Texas.
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The concept could be less attractive to lawmakers from rural areas, where public schools employ a lot of people in their constituency. Public schools are also at the heart of these communities.
Abbott has been touring Texas with the idea of educational savings accounts, a concept that allows parents to receive the school funding for their individual child and apply it to another avenue of education.
For example, Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, introduced legislation that would allot $10,000 per child in Texas for education.
For republicans, this is a way to allow parents to choose how race and history are taught.
Abbott could also talk about crime, cutting property taxes and border security.