Texas' battle over school choice continues | Texas: The Issue Is

The first big floor debate under the Texas Capitol dome may take place this week now that a Senate committee has pushed forward Senate Bill 2

This new attempt at school choice is a beefed up version of a plan that failed to clear the House three times in 2023. FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski spoke to a school choice advocate who supports SB 2 and an advocate for small government about what's being pitched.

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Texas Senate holds public hearing on school vouchers

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James Dickey with Liberty for the Kids

James Dickey: I think this absolutely will be the year. Not only has the governor come out very strong again, the lieutenant governor is very strong again. The speaker has had and has been a supporter of school choice vouchers and ESA [education savings account] programs for a long time. So I think we've got good support. We have more numbers in the House and that's where it fell last time.

Rudy Koski, FOX 7 Austin: It's a very limited group of people who are going to be able to cash in on this.

Dickey: Of course, with 6 million students in public schools in Texas this year, there's no program you could introduce that would help all of them out of the gate. The good news is all the statistics show that if even 5% in an area take up school choice, the public school actually improves.

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Dickey: The wonderful thing in school choice is parents and kids will have that choice.

Koski: It really isn't school choice where it's 100% universal. My tax dollars following my kid. Why not push that?

Dickey: Well, we can, of course, always shoot for even more and even better. But this is universal in that any Texas school kid, it's limited.

Koski: But it's limited…It's not universal.

Dickey: It's limited in terms of the amount of money that is committed.

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Dickey: It all depends on the number of applications. So if we have a significant number of people who apply to go from a public school to homeschooling, that will just mean tens of thousands more Texas kids can be in the program.

Koski: This bill would also allow tutoring with the money, supplies, even clothing. Are you worried that it could…this billion dollars could be just nickel and dimed away?

Dickey: There are controls. It's limited to a certain amount for each kid. But the other good news is it's not just tuition, which is why this is not a voucher program. It really is an ESA that applies to other things. But we as taxpayers, of course, want to make sure it goes through things that matter for school.

Jennifer Fleck of We the People Lake Travis

Jennifer Fleck: I don't think it makes education better.

Koski: Why is this not the right plan?

Fleck: Mainly it grows government. It allows our government, our comptroller…it gives our comptroller a lot of control. Maybe. Probably too much control. It looks, in my opinion, it seeks to profit a very small group of people.

Koski: Are you surprised that this is coming from a group of people who claim to be fiscally conservative?

Fleck: Yes. I don't…that…those words don't mean much to me. Unless you're cutting waste and cutting expenses, then you're not a fiscal conservative. 

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Koski: When it gets to the House, is there a compromise that will make you support this kind of idea?

Fleck: I would have to see the language because they always muddy it up. I definitely would lean toward a bill where your property taxes that you pay follow your child.

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Fleck: The bill is so bad in so many ways, it's hard to say what would be better.

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The Source: Information in this article comes from interviews with James Dickey and Jennifer Fleck, and from the Texas Legislature.

Texas: The Issue IsTexas PoliticsEducationGreg AbbottTexas