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Chicago Tribune
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Heidi Stevens: Texas' Ten Commandments mandate doesn't square with attempts to keep ‘individual beliefs' out of classrooms
In the campaign to keep discussions about race and identity out of classrooms, there's a common refrain: Schools should stick to the basics. 'Teach ABCs + 123s, not CRTs & LGBTs,' campaign signs read in one Texas school board race. (CRT refers to critical race theory, a catchall phrase for lessons that explore how race has shaped America's systems and policies.) 'They're focused more on the LGBTs than the ABCs,' Corey DeAngelis, American Federation for Children senior fellow, said on a Fox Business segment last summer. 'I want our kids to learn about A-E-I-O-U instead of L-G-B-T-Q,' South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace wrote on X in April. In January, when Meridian, Idaho, middle school teacher Sarah Inama was forced to remove an 'Everyone is Welcome Here' poster from her classroom, school officials cited a district policy against signs that distract from students' education. 'School property shall not be used by personnel for the advancement of individual beliefs,' the policy reads. 'It is the desire of the District that the physical environment of District facilities be content neutral, conducive to a positive learning environment and not a distraction to the educational environment.' Stick to the basics. These are straw man fallacies, falsely implying that acknowledging and celebrating the full range of backgrounds, identities and family structures kids bring to the classroom will somehow crowd out instruction time. But it's not an either/or. There's plenty of time to help kids tap into their humanity and still learn to spell. It's why we weave music and art and assemblies and sports and clubs and field trips into children's days. Schools, ideally, teach students the skills they need to survive and thrive. But they also, ideally, help children understand who they are, who they want to become and who they share the world with along the way. I suspect the stick-to-the-basics crowd knows this though. I suspect the movement to keep LGBT and CRT and DEI out of classrooms has less to do with protecting instruction time and more to do with creating a climate where only certain backgrounds, identities and family structures are welcome — or even acknowledged. I suspect 'the advancement of individual beliefs' is fine on classroom walls, in fact, as long as those individual beliefs are shared by the stick-to-the-basics crowd. Otherwise, I'm not sure how you explain the Texas legislature just passing a bill that requires every public school classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments. The bill, which, as of this writing, was set to be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, requires every school to 'display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.' Displays must be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall. 'By placing the Ten Commandments in our public school classrooms,' Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, according to NBC News, 'we ensure our students receive the same foundational moral compass as our state and country's forefathers.' The same forefathers, it's worth noting, who took care to separate church from state in the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the government from establishing or sponsoring a religion. In 1980, The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms, ruling that Kentucky's law violated the First Amendment's establishment clause. Forty-five years later, Texas is poised to join Louisiana and Arkansas, both of which recently passed laws mandating that public school classrooms display the Ten Commandments. Will the U.S. Supreme Court hear another challenge to these new laws? It's hard to know. But what's increasingly apparent is that the push to place Christianity at the center of public education is gaining steam. And that's important context to consider when you hear folks insisting that classrooms should focus on the ABCs and 123s. That's important context to consider when a teacher is made to remove an 'Everyone is Welcome Here' poster because it advances individual beliefs. It doesn't add up. There's nothing wrong with schools shaping and engaging kids' hearts and values and beliefs, alongside language and literacy and math. Their humanity is an enormous part of their well-being. But when you restrict those values and beliefs to a single religion, you're not really protecting children's humanity. Not all children's humanity, anyway. You're protecting dogma. You're taking a public space, funded by and built for all, and making it only welcoming for some. Don't pretend it's about vowels. Don't pretend it's about addition and subtraction, when it's actually about exclusion. Our children deserve better.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘A True Game Changer:' Unprecedented School Choice Tax Credit Part of GOP Bill
A historic bill creating a first-of-its-kind, nationwide tax credit scholarship program to expand private school choice is part of a sweeping Republican tax bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday. 'It is a true game changer that we think would really supercharge school choice across the country,' said John Schilling, senior advisor for the American Federation for Children, a conservative school choice advocacy group. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The Educational Choice for Children Act would provide money to families in all 50 states making less than three times their area's median income. The recipients, including families who homeschool, could spend it on a large range of education-related expenses, including private and parochial school tuition, books and other instructional material, online classes, private tutoring, fees for dual enrollment and educational therapies. Related The measure would create $5 billion in annual tax credits starting next year for individuals who donate cash or stocks to nonprofit Scholarship Granting Organizations, which have discretion over handing out the funds. Donors would receive an unprecedented 1:1 return, allowing them to reduce their taxable income by $1 for every dollar donated, up to $5,000 or 10% of their adjusted gross income. Currently, 1.2 million students are being served by 76 private school choice programs enacted in 34 states, according to Patrick Wolf, graduate director of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Those programs include vouchers, which give parents public money directly for private school tuition, and Education Savings Accounts, which set aside public money for a range of educational expenses. Twenty-one of those states already have tax credit scholarship programs, according to EdChoice. That number might be about to radically change. 'If the ECCA is enacted and the maximum amount of tax credits … are claimed through individual donations, basically the number of students being supported by private school choice programs across the country would double in one year,' Wolf told The 74. 'A 100% increase in a single year in the number of people being served by private school choice programs. That's a big deal.' Pro-choice advocates and conservative leaders celebrated the bill's advancement, arguing it will give unprecedented school choice access to families across the country who have historically been locked out, including in Democratic-controlled states where lawmakers generally oppose private school choice. Children, they say, will finally have the opportunity to be matched with the learning environment and tools that suit them best, largely regardless of how much money their parents make. And the tax incentives will allow individuals to fund it. Related Meanwhile, critics expressed serious concern, claiming the far-reaching measure would essentially use taxpayer money to fund largely unregulated private schools primed for discrimination and that loopholes in the bill allow for a system akin to a tax shelter. They also argue wealthier individuals in urban areas — both those donating and those receiving funds — stand to benefit the most, while those in underserved rural areas could be harmed. And, they say, the $5 billion in taxes the government will lose out on has to come from somewhere and will likely drain resources from public schools, which serve the majority of U.S. students. 'This would be a back door way of creating what is essentially a very large, nation-wide private school voucher program, and it would be created by sneaking it into this big budget reconciliation bill,' said Jon Valant, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who authored a report arguing against the measure. 'It may very well pass without most Americans knowing what it is and what it does.' Because the choice act is part of the fast-track budget reconciliation process, it faces an easier road to passage in the Senate, requiring a simple 51-vote majority, rather than 60, and is not subject to stalling by the filibuster. In the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority, Speaker Mike Johnson has said he expects to have the budget bill done by Memorial Day. With a $5 billion cap, Valant pointed out, the tax credit scholarship 'would overnight become one of the largest federal education programs that we have. As one of those programs, it just doesn't meet the kinds of standards that I think we should expect for public spending in education.' Related While public funding of school choice has been around since at least the late '90s, he said there's been a shift in the philosophy and incentives behind the measures. Historically, they were far more targeted to lower-income students or those with disabilities. But, 'this newer wave of private school choice policies reflects very different motivations,' he said, arguing that when programs have almost-universal eligibility and are set up in ways that help wealthier people, 'it's really not at all equity- and opportunity-motivated policy.' Related One way families with greater wealth are incentivized to donate? Stockholders stand to benefit through a loophole that would exempt them from paying capital gains taxes. For example, if an individual were to donate $10,000 worth of stock that they had originally purchased at $2,000, they'd still get back the full $10,000 in tax credits without ever having to pay capital gains on the $8,000 profit. If the choice act passes, it would run through 2029, with the ability to increase the cap by up to 5% each year. It's part of the 389-page 'one big, beautiful bill' approved by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday after a marathon six-hour hearing by 26-19 vote along party lines. Among many other provisions, the controversial bill would make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent, cut funding to Medicaid and food stamps and extend the current $2,000 Child Tax Credit while raising it to $2,500 per child through 2028. The specifics for the tax credit scholarship in the omnibus tax bill differ from the original act introduced in January in three major ways: the $10 billion cap has been cut in half; only individual taxpayers, not corporations, are eligible to donate; and participating private and parochial schools must follow the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which legally mandates support services and accommodations for special education students. 'That's a huge regulatory burden for small private schools, and in a sense, is potentially a poison pill for the legislation,' Wolf said. But experts emphasized that the bill must still go through multiple committees and the reconciliation process, so is subject to significant changes. Pro-choice advocates in particular are hoping the final language more closely mirrors that of the original bill, which allowed corporations to participate and did not require private and religious schools to follow IDEA. A version of the bill was introduced under the first Trump administration but didn't really gain momentum at the time. A new version was re-introduced this January by Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisania Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, and a number of his colleagues. 'For years I've advocated for school choice with my Educational Choice for Children Act. I am pleased to see it included in the big, beautiful bill,' Cassidy said in a statement. 'Expanding President Trump's tax cuts is about preserving the American Dream. Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the dream possible.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
School Choice Ohio celebrates 20 years, addresses voucher concerns
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — School Choice Ohio toasted to two decades of operations last week as the educational movement it fights for continues to make headlines amid Ohio's budget debates. School Choice Ohio celebrated 20 years of fighting for school choice, or expanded educational opportunities that emphasize parental control. In Ohio, this is closely linked with Ohio's five voucher programs, which provide state scholarships for students to attend private schools. Of them, EdChoice and EdChoice Expansion have the largest participation by far and allow at least partial scholarships for all students, regardless of financial need. NBC4 spoke with School Choice Ohio leadership before its anniversary party at the Columbus Athletic Club. President Eric 'Yitz' Frank said the organization is proud of the work it has done to increase options for parents. After weapons go undetected, nurses union at Ohio State hospitals asks for security updates 'We've spent the past 20 years communicating with hundreds of thousands of parents around the state and helping place them in better educational environments for their children and concurrently working with the legislature and governor to pass policies that help empower them,' Frank said. EdChoice has made headlines lately as public school districts speak out against Ohio's proposed biennial budget. In its current version, which passed the Ohio House, the budget does not implement the third phase of a school funding formula. School districts say the decision would cost public schools millions in state funding while expanding budgets for voucher programs. NBC4 asked Frank about the budget issues, and he said School Choice Ohio vouches for all education options. He said legislators have access to data that the general public may not have. Contrary to public district and educational nonprofits' impact estimates, he said some lawmakers believe districts are overinflating their need, although Frank neither agreed nor disagreed with this idea. 'I think that the state has proven that they can fund public schools adequately and school choice programs, they will do it again this budget and they will do it again in the future,' Frank said. Rare Civil War flag sold at Columbus auction for $468,000 Walter Banks Jr., national spokesperson for the American Federation for Children, said his life was changed — if not saved — by Ohio's EdChoice scholarship program. Banks said his mother went to his public school, which told her they would turn around the middle and high schools within five years. 'My mom knew I didn't have that much time to wait when it came to my education, so much so that she said, 'In five years, Walter will either be in jail or in a bodybag,'' Banks said. 'Because of the EdChoice scholarship program, I quickly found myself in an environment where I wasn't bullied every single day.' Banks also attended the 20th anniversary party, representing the American Federation for Children (AFC), founded by former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. NBC News found it helped fuel a rapid influx of public funding for private Christian schools. A national nonprofit challenged Ohio's allotment of tax dollars to private Christian schools, and it is a common criticism of the voucher system. However, state Republicans said it is constitutional because parents are able to choose where the money goes. A Utah court recently ruled voucher programs are unconstitutional, and Ohio's voucher system is currently being challenged in court. See previous coverage of the lawsuit in the video player above. In fiscal year 2024, Ohio allocated just under $1 billion to voucher programs, more than $667.6 million of which went to EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp scholarships. NBC4 analyzed data for all 91 EdChoice and 139 EdChoice-Exp schools that received more than $1 million from the state and found all of them were religiously affiliated. 'We support putting dollars in the hands of families,' Frank said. 'If they want to take those dollars and take it to a religious school, or a satanic school or a secular school, we support all of that. These are private decisions made by private families.' Banks said having choices expanded opportunities immensely, especially for low-income or minority students. He pointed to a new study by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, which found students were more likely to graduate college when they participated in EdChoice. Banks said the significant differences for low-income and Black students stood out to him, as he connected with them personally. Columbus targeting certain neighborhoods to crack down on crime 'When primarily lower income, minority families are given the option to pick the best educational environment for them, it has lifelong impacts, not just in K-12 but even beyond that when it comes to graduating college or actually going out into society to contribute and I'm living proof of that,' Banks said. 'The life that I live now is because of school choice.' According to state data, 89% of participants in both EdChoice and EdChoice-Exp programs in the 2024-2025 school year were not low-income qualified. However, Frank said that data only accounts for students who specifically declared their income status, which he alleged skews the data. Frank estimates about 50% of students have economic need for voucher programs, an area he has expertise in but NBC4 is unable to independently verify. Attorneys representing the six public school districts suing the state over voucher programs argued vouchers increase racial segregation, among other things. Franklin County Common Pleas Court heard oral arguments from both sides last week, and Judge Jaiza Page will now make a ruling or refer the case to trial. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Greg Abbott took a flailing school voucher movement and turned it into a winning issue
Four years ago, the push for private school vouchers in Texas was rudderless. Session after session, Democrats and rural Republicans drove home the point by passing a budget amendment to bar state dollars from being used for private school tuition. The provision never made it into the final budget, but that was beside the point. The amendment from Democratic Rep. Abel Herrero served as the yardstick to measure the House's voucher resistance, forcing members to take an up-or-down vote that always proved lopsided. In 2021, only 29 members of the 150-seat chamber registered support for vouchers by voting against the measure. On paper, those were the odds confronting Gov. Greg Abbott when he grabbed the reins of Texas' voucher push in 2022. In short order, he flipped the math on its head, ushering a $1 billion package through the Legislature with overwhelming support from Republicans in both chambers. Abbott is poised to sign the measure into law Saturday. In unraveling the House's bipartisan voucher blockade, Abbott tapped into a powerful national conservative movement that, paired with his own campaign war chest, turned legislative races into multimillion-dollar affairs. His brutally effective method of engineering the voucher turnaround represents a watershed moment in Texas politics that stands as a blueprint for deep-pocketed donors and interest groups to emulate — and that Abbott and future governors could employ on other priority issues. But even before it came to that, Abbott unlocked a number of votes simply by lending his name to the movement, according to those at the forefront. Once a supportive yet muted voice, Abbott's sudden move to adopt vouchers as his signature issue helped galvanize latent support among a number of House Republicans who backed the concept of 'school choice' but saw no upside in voting against the Herrero amendment without sufficient political capital invested in the fight. 'That was clearly the biggest part of it, because without that torch bearer, it wasn't worth — I believe, in their minds — the political energy that was necessary to lead the battle,' said John Colyandro, an Austin lobbyist who represents the voucher advocacy group American Federation for Children. 'The coalition against school choice, as evidenced by the Herrero amendment, was very strong,' added Colyandro, a former top Abbott aide. 'So when the governor took up the cause the way he did, it was in some respects by necessity, because only through political action was the dynamic in the House going to turn.' In the end, 86 of 88 House Republicans voted for the voucher bill now awaiting Abbott's signature — an utter dismantling of the once steely coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans who had stood in the way of its passage for years in the lower chamber. Rep. James Frank, a Wichita Falls Republican who has long supported the concept of education savings accounts, said it also made a huge difference getting an actual bill in front of members — something that could only happen once there was an organized push. The Herrero amendment 'has always been kind of a 'gotcha,'' Frank argued, 'because there's no policy tied to it.' 'The only thing you stood to do was make people mad over your vote,' said Frank, one of the 29 pro-voucher votes in 2021. 'There were certainly more that liked the idea, but until there was policy, it wasn't going to happen.' A spokesperson for Abbott declined an interview request for this story. After largely avoiding the 'school choice' battlefield, Abbott threw his full-throated support behind vouchers during his 2022 reelection bid. By then, a growing number of states were offering vouchers in the form of state-funded education savings accounts, inspired by a nationwide wave of parental resentment over school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the perception among conservatives that public schools were a hotbed of liberal indoctrination. Abbott would make that a core part of his pitch for vouchers on the campaign trail. The following January, as the 2023 legislative session kicked off, the governor started traversing the state to hold 'parent empowerment nights' where he would promote education savings accounts before sympathetic crowds at private schools — sometimes in the districts of lawmakers who were resistant or on the fence. In April, when Herrero's biennial test vote came, the measure passed 86-52. Just 24 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to ban vouchers, less than half the 49 GOP members who had voted for the Herrero amendment two years earlier. The converts included Rep. Brad Buckley, the Salado Republican and chair of the Public Education Committee who would be the House's point person on vouchers for the next two years. Abbott touted the vote as progress and said the fight was unfinished. But to Colyandro, it was already becoming clear that no amount of cajoling and arm-twisting could change things; the battle would need to be settled at the ballot box. 'I strongly believed in 2023, after the first three-ish, four months of the regular session, that no bill was going to pass until the makeup of the House of Representatives changed,' Colyandro said. 'The lines were drawn.' Voucher critics have argued that such programs would funnel money away from Texas public schools, further choking a system that in recent years has faced widespread budget shortfalls from inflation and five years without a boost in per-student state funding. That concern has been especially acute among Republicans representing sparsely populated districts, some of whom view vouchers as an existential threat to local school districts — which often double as the top employers in rural communities. Critics have also raised concerns that Texas would follow the lead of other states where lawmakers promised to prioritize the neediest children, yet saw much of their voucher program dollars flow to wealthier families whose kids already attended private schools. Josh Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University and an outspoken critic of school voucher programs, said Texas' proposals — including the bill on Abbott's desk — have also failed to recognize the difference between eligibility and access by requiring or encouraging private schools to accept low-income applicants. Under Texas' program, up to 20% of voucher recipients could be from wealthier families who earn 500% or more of the poverty rate — about $160,000 or more for a family of four. 'It pays a little bit of lip service to trying to spread out dollars more evenly,' Cowen said of Senate Bill 2. 'But if you are not willing to go the distance and require the publicly subsidized private schools to at least take more children, or at least incentivize them to do it — there are ways you could try, and they're not even trying.' Abbott and other voucher supporters say such concerns are overblown, arguing that Texas can simultaneously implement a voucher program and fund its public schools. They contend that 'school choice' — the umbrella term supporters use to describe programs that operate outside the traditional public school system — is needed to provide alternatives for low-income families who are dissatisfied with their local schools yet cannot afford to send their kids elsewhere, and they insist Texas' eligibility criteria has always focused on sending dollars to lower-income students and those with disabilities. In 2023, toward the end of the spring regular session, Buckley tried to placate opponents with a pared-down bill that would have offered education savings accounts only to students with disabilities or who attended low-performing schools. But Abbott threatened to veto it, insisting on a program with 'universal' eligibility open to every Texas student. The battle ultimately came to a head during the fourth special session of the year in November. Buckley introduced an all-in-one education package that included vouchers and $7.6 billion in public school funding, the latter of which Abbott said he would only consider after lawmakers approved vouchers. The House responded by voting 84-63 to strip vouchers from the bill, with 21 Republicans — mostly from rural districts — joining with Democrats to deal the fatal blow. The battle lines were set for the primaries, where Abbott promised to take aim at fellow Republicans who had defied him on vouchers — 'the hard way,' as the governor framed it. It was partly Abbott's insistence on a universal voucher program that spelled the demise of his effort in 2023. But Colyandro said it made sense to go big because 'the political lift was just as heavy for a modest bill as it was for a universal bill.' 'It sounds a bit counterintuitive, but being in the middle of it, that was absolutely true,' Colyandro said. 'The more modest bill had as much resistance as the big bill.' Abbott, the most prolific political fundraiser in Texas history, reported a formidable $38 million war chest heading into the primaries, bolstered by a single $6 million contribution from Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania-based GOP megadonor and TikTok investor whose priority issues include school vouchers. The governor had plenty of allies as he plunged into more than a dozen GOP primaries. Among them was the AFC Victory Fund, the super PAC political arm of the American Federation for Children, and the federal Club for Growth political action committee — both of whom were also recipients of Yass' largesse and spent millions going after anti-voucher GOP incumbents. Some Texas-based groups also joined the fray, such as the Family Empowerment Coalition PAC, a group formed by GOP donors Doug Deason and Leo Linbeck III, and Eddie Lucio Jr., a retired conservative Democratic senator, to specifically promote pro-voucher candidates. Though voucher advocacy groups have always had a presence in Texas — most notably the high-powered Texas Public Policy Foundation — Colyandro argued they were 'never quite galvanized,' until now, to provide a formidable counter to the network of public education groups that worked to keep the House's anti-voucher coalition in place. 'I think too many of the groups were relying on the merits of the policy and were missing the political component, which is what the governor's actions brought a sharp focus to,' Colyandro said. Though Abbott and his allies made clear in the primaries they were targeting members based on their voucher opposition, some of the targets grumbled that the attacks against them focused more on border security and other issues unrelated to vouchers. Cowen said that's because vouchers typically do not fare well among voters. Last November, he noted, private school choice ballot initiatives were rejected in Colorado, Nebraska and Kentucky. Nearly two-thirds voted against the measure in Kentucky, about the same percentage captured by President Donald Trump in the state. Many voters in those states, Cowen said, felt little connection to private schools or the voucher movement — and the same can be said for rural Texas, he argued. 'What has Milton Friedman ever done for kids in West Texas?' Cowen said, referring to the free-market economist who was one of the first to champion vouchers and school choice. 'I think that's what a lot of this is really about. And it turns out that if you have enough dollars, you can spend your way out of that problem.' Mandy Drogin, a voucher advocate with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, saw things differently as she traversed the state with Abbott on his 'parent empowerment' tour. She said the power of the movement crystallized during her first stop with the governor at The King's Academy, a private religious school in Dallas attended mostly by low-income families and that covers much of its costs through donations. 'I remember just getting teary eyed hearing the stories of mothers talking about what this school means to not only their child's future, but their entire family, to have a hope that they can reach their full potential,' said Drogin, the director of Next Generation Texas, TPPF's education reform campaign. In any case, the primary scoreboard showed a resounding win for Abbott. Between the March primaries and the May runoffs, nine GOP voucher holdouts were ousted — eight of them by primary challengers endorsed by the governor. Additionally, four retiring anti-voucher Republicans were succeeded by pro-voucher freshmen. And in November, two Abbott-backed GOP candidates were elected to replace retiring Democrats. Suddenly, Abbott was touting 79 'hardcore school choice proponents' in the Texas House heading into this year's session — three more than he needed to usher legislation through the chamber. Abbott's success in the primaries was a 'seminal moment,' said Frank, a 12-year veteran of the Legislature who said he had 'never seen the governor all in on a policy' quite like Abbott on vouchers. The resounding outcome changed the dynamic heading into session, he said. 'While people would say there were other issues, that issue [vouchers] was on the table in all of those races,' Frank said. 'So to me, Republican primary voters spoke pretty loud.' The start of session in January came with a clear shift in tone around vouchers: questions about whether supporters could muster enough votes became conversations about what would be in the bill. Even so, House Democratic leaders urged their members to stay defiant, arguing that 'the devil is in the details' and Republicans would still need to craft a bill they could all agree on. The Senate sprinted out of the gate, passing their voucher package in early February ahead of all other legislation. Prominent conservative voices soon after began heaping pressure on the House to follow suit, led by Trump, who warned the House he would 'be watching them closely.' Trump's billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, also publicly called on House Speaker Dustin Burrows to pass 'school choice.' Appearing with Abbott at a San Antonio rally, Burrows — who supported vouchers before he claimed the speaker's gavel — assured the crowd that 'the votes are there to do this in the Texas House.' Later the same week, in late February, Buckley filed the chamber's voucher bill along with its education funding package, touted by Burrows as 'the Texas two-step plan.' 'Families deserve options, schools deserve resources,' Burrows told reporters. 'One without the other leaves Texas short.' The House voucher bill got a warm reception from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a longtime school choice supporter who has frequently criticized the House for not following the Senate's lead in passing voucher programs. The two chambers diverged on how much money students would receive, which applicants would take priority and how the program would accommodate students with disabilities. But the differences were slim, especially compared to the gulf between the chambers in 2023. Soon after the House's voucher bill dropped, a narrow majority of the chamber signed on as coauthors. It was the clearest sign yet that Abbott's top priority was on track to reach his desk. And when the House took up the state budget weeks later, Democrats, apparently reading the room, declined to file their usual litmus test amendment on vouchers. Drogin said Burrows' outspoken support for vouchers played a pivotal role in the smooth passage of SB 2. She contrasted the Lubbock Republican's posture to that of his predecessor, Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, who stayed neutral on the issue as speaker in 2023, insisting he would leave it to the will of the House. 'He seized the moment,' Drogin said of Burrows. 'He stood firm and he helped deliver this historic victory. It is absolutely a completely different story than what we have witnessed in the past.' With the voucher vote nearing, Democrats made a Hail Mary play to derail the bill: they would try to amend the legislation so that it would only take effect if voters gave it majority support on the statewide November ballot. Democrats hoped to find a Republican member to champion the idea, but when SB 2 hit the floor, it was Rep. James Talarico, an Austin Democrat, who introduced the amendment. Talarico claimed that there was 'growing bipartisan support' for the referendum idea — until Abbott 'started calling members into his office, one by one, and threatening to veto all the bills of' anyone who supported the amendment, he alleged. A spokesperson for Abbott denied the charge, but in any case, the proposal attracted just one Republican vote — Phelan, the former speaker. On the bill itself, Phelan and Rep. Gary VanDeaver, of New Boston, were the only Republican holdouts. The near-party line split on the vote — less than two years after 21 Republicans tanked Abbott's prior voucher bill — reflected the governor's focus on making it as unpalatable as possible for any GOP member to consider opposing the bill. Meeting with House Republicans before Wednesday's floor fight, Abbott patched in Trump to rally support for SB 2 and remind members of what awaited them next primary season if they fell out of line. In an interview this week with conservative radio host Chris Salcedo, Abbott drove the point home, arguing that school choice 'kind of has been a partisan issue in the United States.' 'If you look at presidents, you have Reagan and Trump who support school choice,' Abbott said. 'You have Obama and Biden and Harris who are against school choice. Which team do you want to line up on?' Rather than settle the differences between the House and Senate bills in a closed-door conference committee, Patrick and the Senate's lead voucher author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, agreed to accept the version that passed the House. In the final draft, Buckley agreed to several changes sought by anti-voucher Republicans, who agreed to support the bill in exchange. Those tweaks included removing the expiration date on a provision that would cap how much of the voucher budget could be reserved for wealthy recipients and adding a requirement for private schools to have been accredited for at least two years before joining the program, aimed at deterring so-called pop-up private schools. The final draft was drawn up with an eye toward getting the Senate to concur with the changes, said Frank, one of the House members who worked closely with Buckley on the bill. The idea was to limit opportunities for last-minute flare-ups or anything else that could derail the bill. 'The Senate sent over a good bill,' Frank said. 'And I think the House truly did make it better.' Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Epoch Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
National School Choice Movement Getting a Texas-Sized Boost
By the fall of 2026, the number of American K–12 students eligible for publicly funded school choice scholarships is expected to exceed 50 percent. That's presuming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott soon signs into law a $1 billion bill that covers private school vouchers and other education-related expenses, to the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit organization that promotes and tracks school choice growth. It says Abbott's move would push the total number of children served by universal school choice laws into the national majority. 'This is over 20 years in the making,' Ryan Cantrell, the organization's president of government affairs, told The Epoch Times. 'Texas could provide a blueprint for a lot of places.' The Texas bill, which passed both houses this month and would begin in the 2026–2027 academic year if signed into law by the governor, would provide at least $10,000 per selected child for an education savings account (ESA). Children with special needs or from low-income households would be prioritized if demand is higher than funds available, according to the bill. Related Stories 4/24/2025 4/17/2025 All 6 million K-12 students in that state would be eligible for consideration, and Abbott is expected to sign the bill soon. Texas The state would provide local schools up to $30,000 for a disabled student's individualized education plan, so under this school choice bill, the approved amount would follow the child to their desired school, public or private. As an education savings plan in which qualifying recipients can set up a savings account for school expenses, similar to a health savings account, it would also provide money for school transportation, meals, and other services. Universal school choice legislation had repeatedly failed in the Lone Star State, but the last election cycle brought in 14 new legislators who provided the votes to get it through. Texas is on track to become the largest state with voucher or education savings account options, joining Florida and 22 other states plus the District of Columbia, With Abbott's signature, universal school choice spending across the nation to include tax credit scholarships, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling and other associated services would increase from $3 billion in 2021 to $9 billion next year as the number of children served by these options during the same time increases from about 600,000 to more than 1.5 million, Cantrell said. Growth of School Choice Options School choice is a broad term. Many school districts across all states offer some alternative to schools assigned by neighborhood, whether it's the option to select a different school within a district, or a public charter or magnet school. Universal school choice, by contrast, includes options for choosing a different public school district and taxpayer-funded private school vouchers. Teachers and parents who oppose this measure say it removes state money from already underfunded public schools. EdChoice, another national organization that advocates for and tracks school choice growth, The organization notes that seven percent of students attend private schools that are paid for by their families, and only 2 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 18 are currently served by private school vouchers. Most voucher programs require an admission test, do not disqualify applicants who are already attending private schools, and provide up to 100 percent of their respective state's per-pupil funding rate, which is usually less than $15,000 for students who aren't receiving special education services, according to the Education Commission of the States. Katherine Munal Schulze, EdChoice policy and advocacy director, said universal school choice is expected to improve outcomes for all schools because it creates competition and provides opportunities for specialization. 'There's a new ownership level that occurs,' she told The Epoch Times. '[Whether] it's public or private, parents and teachers can say, 'My kids chose to be here.' Choice will restore more professional respect.' Debating Merits and Local Impact EdTrust, an organization that lobbies against school choice, EdTrust said the program cost Arizona $738 million last year to cover tuition costs for families that otherwise would have paid average annual tuition amounts of at least $7,000 out of pocket, including many from wealthy public-school districts that aren't eligible for state aid. 'Overall, vouchers have funneled money to a select few, while ignoring the majority of Arizona's students and severely harming the state's financial future in the process,' EdTrust's report said. Munal Schulze of rival organization EdChoice provided slides from the Arizona state legislature's budget committee, which noted that the state is operating with a $560 million budget surplus this year. Voucher programs in Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee currently have waiting lists, she added. A 2024 EdChoice By contrast, the Parents' Campaign Research and Education Fund Some said it might be too soon to gauge program success since private school vouchers at a statewide level emerged after the COVID-19 pandemic, although the concept of school choice has existed for decades. States need data from standardized tests, student attendance and discipline records, college entrance exams, and college enrollment figures to evaluate the effectiveness of education savings account plans, the Rand Corporation think tank 'Politically, states may be hesitant to conduct evaluations of programs that are contentious, especially before those programs mature,' the report said. Increased funding with growing universal school choice programs will also be hotly contested in the years to come. Texas Democrats who opposed SB 2 noted that if demand for vouchers grows as expected, the program could increase from $1 billion to more than $7 billion within one year. In response, proponents said that residents will always contribute to the local school tax base through state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and, in some parts of the country, lottery revenues, regardless of whether their children attend private schools or whether they have children or not. 'There's a mischaracterization that all this money is flying away,' said Cantrell, of the American Federation for Children. 'In essence, it's not taking local funding away.' Private Schools Anticipate Strong Interest Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association, said 941 accredited private schools in the Lone Star State would be eligible to participate in the bill's voucher program. While private school applications require an admissions test and teacher recommendations, selection at most institutions is not considered highly competitive, and the process is more about making sure the school is a good fit for the interested student, Colangelo said. She said the vast majority of private schools in Texas are religious and get help from their parent organizations, like the Catholic Diocese, to provide financial aid for students. Annual tuition ranges from as low as $3,000 in the Rio Grande Valley to more than $30,000 for the most elite institutions in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Homeschooling is an increasingly popular option for families in more rural areas, though in many communities, parents are willing to make long drives to preferred schools. Colangelo anticipates that many private schools will open small satellite campuses to accommodate children in remote areas. 'It will help, but to start, it's maybe helping 80,000 kids and isn't a huge program,' she said. 'We are cautioning our families: there's not going to be any schools that are overrun by ESA students. 'And I think the goal of a lot of parents is to get their children back in public schools eventually.' School choice advocates offer tax credit programs as a compromise that they hope will be considered on both sides of the aisle. Twenty-one states provide tax credits to those who donate to a private school voucher program. National School Choice Initiative At the national level, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has 'I think there's momentum for this nationally,' Cantrell said, adding that Texas's program is a barometer for other states to consider vouchers or education savings accounts, and a simultaneous national tax credit program is another way to expand school choice in states where lawmakers won't fund it. 'It gives people an option. If you don't like the established, entrenched education bureaucracy, you can contribute to school choice if you want to.'
