Texas Legislature: Hearing set for Texas school voucher bill
AUSTIN, Texas - The first hearing on a new school voucher plan is now set for Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Texas Capitol.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said he would fast track the controversial legislation and on Friday morning, in the State Senate, SB 2 was referred to the Senate Education K-16 Committee.
What is Senate Bill 2?
The backstory:
SB 2 was the only major bill taken up Friday before the few lawmakers in the Senate Chamber took a weekend break.
SB2 would provide up to $10,000 per student, and $11,000 for a child with a disability. The money could be used to pay for a private school, charter school, tutoring and/or education supplies. The bill would also provide up to $2,000 for home school students.
FOX7’s panel of political analysts discussed the coming debate with Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski.
"I think the big question when it comes to ESAs is whether you're going to end up fully funding it," said Dallas Morning News reporter Philip Jankowski.
The Senate and the House, in their budget bills, set aside a billion dollars to fund a Voucher/ Education Savings Account plan. That’s more than double what was pitched in previous plans that failed to reach the desk of Governor Greg Abbott.
Brian Smith with St. Edwards University noted the new strategy being used now.
"What they're doing this time rather than last session is coming up with the money and then figuring out the policy as opposed to last time," said Smith.
SB 2 is expected to clear the Senate without any major modifications. Some type of compromise and modification is possible in the House despite Gov. Abbott claiming he now has enough votes to pass a plan.
Jankowski noted a key point as to who has access to the money.
"You could easily see there being some sort of compromise, a limited, maybe even a bracketed income bracket and sort of approach to the ESAs," said Jankowski.
The other side:
Another issue yet to be resolved is how lawmakers with small school districts will respond to a plan that is not true school choice.
SB 2 does not allow individual school property tax dollars to follow a property owner’s child. SB 2 would actually be a new state-funded entitlement program that would pay for less than 100,000 students, because the state comptroller’s office would get a portion of the billion-dollar allotment to manage SB 2.
The program, as drafted, would leave out most Texas students. In the 2023-24 school year, there were 5.5 million students, according to the Texas Education Agency. The gap could pose a big debate problem for those who support SB 2.
"Patrick obviously is all about tax cuts. But the Republicans are going to have to own this eventually. And creating a big government program is not something that they've been running on," said Smith.
Texas legislature and school choice
We continue to look at the battle over education policy in the Texas legislature. Gov. Abbott claimed he has the votes to pass his school choice voucher plan in this new session after it failed two years ago. FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak has a look at both sides of this continuous issue.
What's next:
The debate is expected to bleed over into the Senate and House Finance Committees. That could also cause problems, according to Brad Johnson with The Texan News.
"The fact that there's no daylight, at least in appropriations so far, between the two chambers on the ESA program is notable. But my eyes, as always are, are caught by the property tax side of this. The Senate's plan has a 40 k homestead exemption increase. The House's plan doesn't specify the mechanisms. Do they go back to an attempted compression only plan," asked Johnson.
That fight is where things broke down in the previous regular session, triggering a special session.
"Back then, the House was trying to do this appraisal cap side of things, and that was something the Senate dug their heels in against. But right now, where there's no daylight on the ESA appropriation, there's a lot of daylight between the two on this property tax side," said Johnson.
A gap in a tax plan and the limited availability of the ESA plan could trigger another fight between the House and the Senate.
The Source: Information from the Texas legislative session