Texas Public Schools Face Double Pressure Amid STAAR Overhaul and Voucher Expansion
This article explores the sweeping changes underway in Texas education policy, as lawmakers move to replace the STAAR exam and expand private school vouchers. It traces the historical inequities of state-mandated testing, analyzes the implications of funding shifts, and challenges whether the state is setting public schools up for success—or sidelining them without the resources or time needed to adapt. With clarity and urgency, the piece calls for equity, transparency, and accountability across all schools receiving public funds.
The end of STAAR testing in Texas marks a significant shift in the state’s education policy. Lawmakers are moving to replace the high-stakes exam with shorter, benchmark assessments. Concurrently, a substantial push for school vouchers is underway. Together, these initiatives are reshaping public education and raising critical questions about access, equity, and the future of Texas schools.
The Unequal History of State Testing
Standardized testing in Texas didn’t begin — or go wrong — with STAAR. It’s part of a longer legacy of state-mandated exams that were originally introduced as tools for accountability, dating back to the Texas Assessment of Basic Skills (TABS) in 1980. Over the years, tests like TAAS, TAKS, and eventually STAAR were introduced with the promise of making public education more rigorous and more equitable. In theory, they were meant to reveal gaps in achievement and push schools toward equity. The burden of that system didn’t fall evenly. Students from low-income families, English language learners, and Black and Latino children consistently underperformed on STAAR — not necessarily because they lacked intelligence or drive, but because the system was never designed to support their context.
Instead of illuminating learning, they narrowed it. Teachers were forced to focus on test prep. Curriculum time was consumed by strategies to boost scores. Creativity, critical thinking, and student-led learning were pushed aside in favor of scantron sheets and rubrics.
In 2023, data from the Charles Butt Foundation showed only 42% of Texans believed STAAR effectively measured student learning, a figure that dropped even further among teachers (Charles Butt Foundation, 2023).
Worse, Texas has a pattern of introducing new tests or shifting the educational landscape before allowing existing systems to fully mature. While assessments like TAKS and STAAR have technically remained in place long enough to meet the three-to five-year window experts say is needed for reliable data, the context around those tests, including state standards, instructional materials, and accountability frameworks, often changes too rapidly to support long-term evaluation.
Most recently, Texas revised its curriculum standards (TEKS) in 2022, with students beginning to test under those new standards in spring 2023. But just two years later, the state is moving to eliminate STAAR entirely and introduce a new assessment system. That means public schools are being asked to meet a brand new benchmark while still adjusting to the last major policy shift.
Experts warn that standardized assessments need consistency in both implementation and environment to yield valid, year-over-year insights. Without that stability, results risk being more reflective of disruption than actual student learning. Once again, Texas appears poised to change the test before the data has had time to speak.
What makes this moment especially volatile is that, alongside the assessment overhaul, the state is doubling down on efforts to expand school vouchers, allowing public funds to follow students into private or religious schools. If those measures succeed, public schools may be forced to do more with less: comply with new testing systems, hit new achievement benchmarks, and serve the same vulnerable populations, all while funding bleeds away to institutions with no obligation to meet those same standards.
The risk is clear: public schools could be punished for not performing well on a new test that hasn’t yet found its footing, while private voucher-funded schools operate in the shadows, unmeasured and unaccountable.
The Voucher Program: A Parallel System Without Accountability
In May 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a $1 billion private school voucher program, allowing eligible families to receive approximately $10,900 annually for tuition and related expenses. This program allows eligible families to receive approximately $10,900 annually to cover private school tuition and related expenses, with higher amounts allocated for students with disabilities.
While proponents argue that vouchers offer families greater educational choice, critics raise concerns about the potential diversion of funds from public schools. Public schools in Texas are primarily funded based on student attendance; thus, as students leave for private institutions, public schools may face reduced budgets. This financial strain could be particularly detrimental as public schools adapt to new assessment standards following the elimination of the STAAR test.
Moreover, private schools receiving public voucher funds are not required to follow the same testing or reporting standards as public schools, leading to widespread concerns over transparency and equity (Raise Your Hand Texas, 2024). They are not required to administer state assessments or adhere to the same transparency measures, leading to concerns about educational equity and the effective use of public funds .
This dual system raises critical questions:
- How will public schools, already facing funding challenges, meet new assessment standards without adequate resources?
- What mechanisms are in place to ensure that private schools receiving public funds provide quality education?
- Does the voucher program exacerbate existing educational inequalities by creating a system where public schools are held accountable, while private schools operate with less oversight?
As Texas embarks on this significant transformation in its education system, it’s imperative to consider these questions to ensure that reforms lead to equitable and effective outcomes for all students.
Texas is standing at a defining moment. The dismantling of STAAR is an acknowledgment that the old ways of measuring student success were never built to serve all students equally. But real reform isn’t just about removing what was broken; it’s about what we build in its place.
Public schools are being asked to meet a new, still-undefined standard, one that will take years to stabilize, interpret, and implement with fidelity. At the same time, they are being threatened with funding loss through a voucher system that demands no such accountability from the private institutions it supports. The burden of proof remains with public schools, while private recipients of public dollars operate with no obligation to serve all students, or measure their outcomes.
If Texas truly wants to reimagine education, it must commit to equity not just in rhetoric, but in practice. That means funding public schools adequately to meet the moment. It means giving new assessment systems the time and resources to grow, adapt, and deliver on their promise. And it means holding all schools — public or private — to the same standard of transparency, performance, and public responsibility.
Because if this transformation fails, it won’t be the policies that pay the price. It will be the students. Again.