The day many watchers of Texas politics have been waiting for is here: The Texas House is currently debating Senate Bill 2 on the floor. If passed, the contentious proposal would create a $1 billion dollar Education Savings Account plan allowing parents to use public funds towards private school tuition.
Past attempts to pass the controversial school voucher measure — a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott and other top Texas Republicans — stalled out in the Texas House during the regular and special sessions in 2023. This happened mainly due to rural House Republicans that voted against it alongside Democrats.
Now, Gov. Greg Abbott believes he has the numbers to pass the bill. That comes after he financially backed pro-voucher candidates in last year's Republican primaries. Several won, shifting the votes for the plan in Abbott's favor.
The day began with a full gallery of onlookers and noisy protests at the Capitol, as lawmakers took up two of the session's most closely watched education bills: House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican from Lubbock, touted support for both bills before heading into Wednesday morning's session.
"These bills have independent and unique importances," Burrows said. "I don't think it's a question of whether they both pass – they will both pass."
While Burrows was speaking to reporters, his caucus members were in a meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott who was stressing the importance of passing the legislation. Before they left President Donald Trump called in via video and let the members know passing school choice in Texas would be in line with his place to help America be ranked higher in education when in comparison to other countries.
House moves $7.7 billion school funding bill forward
But before Wednesday's floor debate on SB 2 began, the Texas House first took up and gave preliminary approval to House Bill 2, a sweeping school funding proposal.
The $7.7 billion dollar proposal, authored by Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), would increase funding for several different areas of public education, including designating $3 billion to teacher pay raises and $1.5 billion in additional funds for special education funding.
"This is more money for Texas public education than any other piece of legislation in the history of the state," Buckley said. "This is landmark funding for public schools."
Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), a former middle school teacher, told Rep. Buckley that — while he did vote the bill out of committee — he was still skeptical of its efficacy.
"This bill fails to meet the moment, and this bill is wholly inadequate to the crisis we face," said Talarico.
The state hasn't increased its funding level for schools since 2019. HB 2 would up per-student funding by about $400. But Rep. Talarico and education advocates have said it would take a $1,300 boost for each student to get districts back to the same level of spending power they had years ago.
On the floor, Buckley acknowledged the bill doesn't go that far, and referenced a quote from Rep. Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio).
"School funding and public education funding in particular cannot be viewed as a sculpture. It's a garden," said Buckley. "This is planting our seed to build our way back to making sure that our schools have the resources they need."
Of note was an amendment added to the bill by Bernal which allows schools to fund full-day Pre-K. Bernal was able to find a way to make that change without adding any additional funds to the bill's bottom line.
After nearly 3 hours, HB 2 passed on second reading 144-4 nays. It will need one more formal vote in the chamber to be considered officially passed and sent to the Texas Senate for consideration. But, given the vote count, it seems to be a done deal for House lawmakers.
Texas House begins debate on school voucher legislation
Lawmakers then quickly turned their attention to Senate Bill 2, which would create Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, allowing parents to use over $10,000 of public funds per student towards private school tuition and other approved educational expenses.
Voucher-like programs have historically had a more difficult journey to passage in the House. The establishment of educational savings accounts were attempted in the 2023 session, but failed to exit the House.
Opponents argue the plan would pull state funding away from public schools and that the bill doesn't have enough accountability mechanisms built in to track student outcomes. Just outside the House chambers on Wednesday, protesters with the Texas Freedom Network lined the walls of the Capitol to speak out against the bill. The advocacy group says the voucher program would be "devastating" to public schools.
"Texans do not want vouchers," said Emily Witt, a spokesperson for the group. "Texans want to support our public schools."
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