The proposed revision of the Senate School Voucher Bill by the Texas House Committee will prioritize students with special education and students from low-income backgrounds, according to the panel’s recommended amendments.
Under the proposed revision, the school’s voucher program created under Senate Bill 2 will close with $1 billion a year until September 1, 2027, prohibiting students who are neither U.S. citizens nor legal residents from participating in the voucher program.
The revision comes after Gov. Greg Abbott last week promised the House Education Committee to approve a school’s voucher proposal this week. Such a move would set a long-standing poll for a controversial voucher program by Full House, which has rejected similar proposals in the past.
Texas House Public Education Chairman Brad Buckley, R-Salado, is scheduled for a committee hearing on the school voucher bill on Thursday.
The voucher law for schools that use public funds to pay tuition fees for students’ private schools has split Republican lawmakers and has become an Abbott signature education issue for the past three years.
The House Public Education Committee was scheduled to take up the Senate voucher proposal on Tuesday, but Chairman Brad Buckley cancelled the meeting late Monday night, with a financial analysis of “time to fully review and consume changes to committee substitution and district operations.”
Buckley, a Republican of Salad, rescheduled consideration for the bill’s committee on Thursday.
The revision of SB 2 proposed by the House Committee will primarily insert language from the House edition of the School’s Voucher Act. House Bill 3.
At HB 3, children participating in the voucher program receive an average of 85% of public school children each year. According to an analysis by the US nation, that figure is around $10,500 this year. Typically, special education students with more costly needs can receive up to $30,000 in funding if they attend public schools.
The House proposal also laid out a step-by-step system for school voucher eligibility.
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The House Program prioritizes children with special education needs for families under 500% of the federal poverty line. This is about $160,000 for a family of four. The program will then prioritize children in all families at 200% of the federal poverty line. A family of four costs around $64,000. Children in other income brackets are placed in other layers of priority.
Both the Senate and House proposals offer up to $2,000 for homeschooling.
The Senate rushed to pass a school voucher proposal on February 5th, about three weeks after the legislative meeting began.
SB 2 has far less restrictive prioritization for students participating in the program.
Once passed through the Senate, SB 2 will offer $10,000 for private schools and $11,500 for children with special education needs. Though the bill prioritizes special education and low-income students, Democrat senators criticized the proposal to define low-income as $160,000 for four families.
The revised version of House Bill 2, a House public school funding plan separate from the School Voucher Act, also proposes increasing the base-level funding per student from $395 to $6,160 to $6,555. Initially, an increase of $220 was proposed by the bill’s authors. HB 2 grows to match the value of assets, combining this automatic increase in base level funding every two years.
This article was originally published on the Austin American National: Texas House Education Panel and was published to hear Senate School Voucher Bill
