Overview:
House Republicans have passed a bill that could severely limit Black students' access to private school education in Texas by increasing funding for individual private school students, reducing the use of less-experienced educators, and allowing for a mountain of educational disparities for Black and brown students in the state. The bill will allow for a voucher program that will divert funding directly to majority-white private schools, leaving the Black and brown kids attending public schools left behind yet again.
House Republicans passed a Senate bill on Wednesday that could severely limit Black students’ access to private school education in Texas. The voucher bill will increase funding for individual private school students, reduce the use of less-experienced educators.
Dallas Weekly reached out to Representative Venton Jones (D) for his comment on the passage on this bill. Jones echoed the sentiment many Texan democrats are feeling now: frustration.
An official statement from Jones on the bill’s impact affirms that it will disproportionately affect students of color.
Vouchers Aren’t Helping Anyone
Jones isn’t wrong in calling out voucher programs for widening educational disparities in Texas. Voucher programs are known for diverting funding directly to majority-white private schools, leaving the Black and brown kids attending public schools left behind yet again.
Moreover, this new voucher program puts intersectionally diverse students at a disadvantage as well.
Fraud and abuse of funds in these voucher programs are common. Contrary to what the bill implies, much of the funding for this voucher can be put towards improving already up-to-standard private schools.
Vouchers also aren’t proven to improve academic achievement. Vouchers can specifically hurt public schools in rural districts, as they serve as more of a community hub than a mere school. They are also not proven to offer the plethora of educational resources that lawmakers sometimes promise they provide. In DC, for example, English Second Language classes and other educational assistance programs were made more inaccessible by their voucher program.
Voucher programs across the US are already seeing the non-existent fruit of false promises. In Florida, the Senate miscalculated their voucher expansion and left one county $17 million in debt. Florida’s voucher reached over $2 billion over budget in its first year.
In West Virginia, scholarships and vouchers actively reducing public school funding are expected to take over $20 million from public schools each year starting with the 2024-2025 school year.
In Arizona, the fiscal note attached to the state’s budget didn’t end up matching the amount of student applications the state received for the voucher. Then Governor Katie Hobbs blamed Republican lawmakers for their quick approval of the voucher. The result? Arizona’s budget stood facing a $400 million deficit.
All According to Abbott’s Plan
SB 2 will allow for a mountain of educational disparities for Black and brown students in the state. Gaining support for this voucher has remained one of Governor Abbott’s top priorities since re-entering office in 2022.
Related: What’s Greg Got to Do with It?
Abbott and Trump’s support of the voucher also blatantly disregards issues of discrimination associated with this bill.
It is common for private school vouchers to turn away students of color, differently abled students, and students who identify as LGBTQ+. Still these private schools remain exempt to certain testing, and are allowed to introduce a new form of segregation into the American education system via this voucher program.
SB 2 is similar in theme to a few other Republican-backed bills still in committee in Austin. One of SB 2’s cousins, HB 3, also proposes an “education savings account” as a form of state-funded educational assistance.
Still, Americans haven’t completely lost all their faith in public schools. Education, more of a partisan issue than ever before, has the majority of the GOP putting their trust in private schools and Democrats still showing support for public schools. Across both aisles, confidence in U.S. public schools rose during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but has since dropped.
So, what can be done to restore confidence in public schools? Bipartisan answers differ.
In 2024, the Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans thought spending more time on core academic subjects would put public education back on track. Moreover, much of the debate over what kind of content is taught in schools has led to education becoming more of a bipartisan issue.
Unsurprisingly, Conservatives are most unhappy with the American education system as a whole. Yet it’s mainly Democrats who point to insufficient school resources and funding as being the cause for public education’s decline. This disconnect has now left several state budgets bone dry from their hemorrhaging voucher programs.
President Trump also approves “school choice” supported by vouchers according to a post Governor Abbott shared to X, formerly known as Twitter.
What’s next?
Democrats in the Senate have one final chance to voice their dissent against this voucher. While Republicans remain adamant that the state is spending an adequate amount of the budget on education, Democrats still call for more funding in public schools.
Under this new voucher program, students attending private schools may receive an additional $10,000 annually.
Governor Abbott says he looks forward to “swiftly” signing the bill into law when it reaches his desk, calling the victory “historic.” Before then, the bill will be voted on by the Texas Senate this Thursday.
