AUSTIN, Texas — A new plan to tackle school vouchers and public school funding in Texas entered the fray Friday.
State Rep. Brad Buckley, the Chair of the Public Education Committee filed House Bill 1. Like similar legislation passed in the Senate, it would create education savings accounts for families to get public money to pay tuition and other expenses at private schools.
In the House version, students could get 75% of the average per-student funding for public schools. The Senate version calls for a flat $8,000.
HB 1 starts with only 25,000 students in the first year being eligible for the education savings account program, but increases by 25,000 each year until the cap is removed in 2027. The Senate plan does not have such a firm cap but is limited by the amount of funding available.
Gary Frankel, a Ph.D. student in educational leadership at Texas A&M, supports school choice but prefers the Senate version because it is more expansive.
"There are some restrictions put in place that sort of counteract the original intent and message of the legislation and philosophically, I'm very sympathetic to those arguments," Frankel said. 'I agree with a lot of them, but I would rather have a limited school choice program than not have a school choice program at all."
HB 1 also does more than create the voucher program. It increases the state's basic allotment, which is the amount of money the state gives a district for each student by $30 in the first year, and a little over $300 in the second. The bill would require districts to put 50% of that increase towards raising teacher pay and would also give teachers a one-time $4,000 bonus.
The Senate handles these changes in a separate bill from the savings accounts. Senate Bill 2 raises the basic allotment by $75 and includes one-time bonuses for teachers. Those in districts with less than 5,000 students would get paid $10,000 while those in districts larger than 5,000 students get a $3,000 payment.
Mark Wiggins with the Association of Texas Professional Educators says these options just remove more resources from public schools.
"Texas remains at the bottom of the barrel in terms of per-student funding," Wiggins said. "We need those resources, our students need those resources and to the extent that we're able to do that. You know that's what we need to be talking about. All of these different voucher proposals would simply remove resources from that equation."
HB 1 contains similar elements to the plan put forth by the Senate split up into SB 1 and SB 2 but goes about them in different ways.
KVUE News worked the whole day to talk to Buckley about his bill, but he was unavailable.
A spokesperson for Gov. Greg Abbott's office told KVUE that Abbott had a "productive" conversation with House Speaker Dade Phelan about HB 1 Friday morning.
"The Governor let the Speaker know that the current version of the House school choice bill differs from what the Governor's office had negotiated with the House's leadership team selected by the Speaker. Speaker Phelan agreed to continue to work with Governor Abbott on the agreed-upon principles of school choice until a deal is reached," a spokesperson for Abbott said.
We reached out to Phelan's office about the bill, but have not heard back.