Texas House Public Education Committee to Discuss Education Savings Accounts

Estimated Time to Read: 13 minutes

On Monday, August 12, 2024, the Texas House Committee on Public Education will convene to hear invited and public testimony on various interim charges, including Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and broader school choice matters. This meeting marks the first time since previous efforts in the regular and special legislative sessions failed regarding ESA implementation that the legislature will begin deliberations on the matter. The results of the interim hearing could have major implications on the future of Texas education policy.

Interim Charge

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) issued the following Interim Charge to the Committee in May 2024:

2. Educational Opportunity: Consider issues and matters to increase educational opportunities in Texas to ensure that students and families have increased options to attend high-quality school, regardless of circumstance. Ebvaluate the use of education savings accounts in other states and make recommendations for a Texas program, including suggestions on eligibility and prioritization of applicants.

Interim Committee Charges, Texas House of Representatives 88th Legislature, May 2024

Background on School Choice Efforts in Texas

School choice has long been a contentious issue in Texas, with advocates arguing it provides parents with more control over their children’s education and critics expressing concerns about the impact on government school funding. The upcoming committee meeting is poised to address these debates.

Open-Enrollment Charter Schools

The Texas Legislature allowed for the establishment of open-enrollment charter schools in 1995. As charter schools began to gain traction in the early 2000s, the legislature continued to address issues standing in the way of their growth. By 2010, Texas had over 500 charter schools serving more than 150,000 students.

A Turning Point

In 2017, the Texas Senate passed legislation (SB 3), authored by then-State Sen. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), seeking to create an ESA program that would subsidize private school tuition and homeschooling expenses, among other provisions. The legislation was never granted a hearing in the House Public Education Committee, chaired by then-State Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Humble), and thus was never considered by the overall Texas House of Representatives.

The Pandemic Effect

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to education but also catalyzed a reignited school choice and parental empowerment debate. As schools closed and varying approaches to “remote learning” became the norm, many parents began to question the “one-size-fits-all” approach of traditional government schools, underscoring the need for educational options that catered to the individual needs of Texas students. The Texas Legislature responded by introducing new legislation to expand school choice options.

The Most Recent Legislative Session(s)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) made parental empowerment and education savings accounts an emergency item as a part of his State of the State Address in February 2023 during the 88th Legislative Session. The Legislature responded in differing ways, resulting in several pieces of legislation seeking to implement various forms of school choice.

Ultimately, Senate Bill 8, authored by State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) and prioritized by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), passed the Texas Senate by a vote of 18 to 13. However, it met its legislative demise in the House Public Education Committee. The Texas House prioritized a different piece of legislation, House Bill 100, authored by State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian). HB 100 sought to accomplish a myriad of things relating to school finance and educator compensation, including establishing an ESA program with a narrow scope of eligibility. HB 100 passed the overall House by a vote of 141 in favor and 2 in opposition and later passed the Senate, with changes, by a vote of 18 to 13. HB 100 went to a conference committee, but a conference committee report was never issued ahead of a key legislative deadline, cutting its legislative prospects short.

Following failed attempts to address the emergency item in the 88th regular legislative session, Speaker Phelan created the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment on June 12, 2023, during the first-called special legislative session by Gov. Abbott. The Select Committee was charged with submitting a report that included an “identification of the current menu of choices available to K-12 students in Texas and highlighting options for providing additional educational opportunities to K-12 students.” The report, published in August 2023, concluded that should the legislature choose to enact an ESA program, it should:

• Clearly outline student eligibility to ensure success and target certain student populations;
• Include appropriate safeguards to ensure fiscal responsibility and accountability, including a finite appropriation to fund the program using General R revenue funds, not funds from the Foundation School Program (FSP);
• Prioritize “high-need” students; and,
• Include mechanisms to assess the academic outcomes of program participants.

In early October 2023, Gov. Abbott called a third special legislative session where one of the agenda items was education freedom, specifically “legislation providing education savings accounts for all Texas schoolchildren.” The Texas Senate quickly passed Senate Bill 1, again authored by Creighton, similar to the legislation considered in the 88th regular Legislative Session. Upon passage of the Senate, SB 1 was referred to the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment but never granted a hearing. State Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), the Chairman of both the House Public Education Committee and the select committee, filed his own legislation which included ESAs. However, that legislation never received a hearing.

In early October 2023, Gov. Abbott called a third special legislative session where among the agenda items was education freedom. Specifically, he called for “legislation providing education savings accounts for all Texas schoolchildren.” The Texas Senate quickly passed Senate Bill 1, again authored by Creighton, similar legislation to what they considered in the 88th regular Legislative Session. Upon passage of the Senate, SB 1 was referred to the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment but never granted a hearing. State Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), the Chairman of both the House Public Education Committee and the aforementioned select committee filed his own legislation which included ESAs. Similarly, that legislation never received a hearing.

Amid the lack of progress on the agenda item, specifically in the Texas House, Abbott later expanded the agenda for the third-called special session to include both ESAs and additional items addressing school finance, such as teacher pay raises, school safety, and special education. Despite this, both legislative chambers could not agree on a way forward.

Doubling down, Abbott called a fourth special legislative session in November 2023, again adding the consideration of ESAs to the legislative agenda. The agenda item included:

“Legislation relating to primary and secondary education, including the establishment of an education savings account program, the certification, compensation, and health coverage of certain public school employees, the public school finance system, special education in public schools, measures to support the education of public school students that include certain educational grant programs, reading instruction, and early childhood education, the provision of virtual education, and public school accountability.”

Agenda Item, Special Session #4

The Texas Senate quickly passed legislation, authored by Creighton, addressing the agenda item. It was referred to the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment but never granted a hearing. Just ahead of this special session call, State Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado) submitted a letter to his colleagues in the Texas House with attached proposed legislation he intended to file to address this item. He expressed his intent to give each of them “a jumpstart on examining the bill ahead of the next special session” and asked them to “thoroughly understand its provisions and implications.” That legislation took the form of House Bill 1. HB 1 passed through the select committee by a vote of 10 in favor to 4 in opposition (along partisan lines). As HB 1 was being considered by the overall Texas House, State Rep. John Raney (R-Bryan) proposed an amendment that effectively sought to cut out the portion of the bill related to ESAs. His amendment was successfully adopted by a vote of 84 in favor to 63 in opposition. Ultimately, 21 Republicans joined House Democrats to kill the bill through a few parliamentary motions, recommitting the legislation back to the committee. The Republicans who joined Raney in favor of his amendment included State Reps:

The Fourth Special Legislative Session concluded in early December 2023 without addressing the issue of ESAs. As such, Gov. Abbott took to the primary election campaign trail in the Spring of 2024 and made the implementation of ESAs and parental empowerment his chief campaign issue, endorsing against many of the incumbent lawmakers who voted for the Raney amendment. Some of those lawmakers chose not to run for reelection. Of those that did, several of them lost their primary elections to candidates endorsed by Abbott and supportive of his ESA initiative. Only State Reps. Keith Bell, Drew Darby, Jay Dean, Charlie Geren, Ken King, Stan Lambert, and Gary VanDeaver (7) won their primary reelection campaigns and will likely return in the 89th Legislative Session (2025).

Texas Budget Showdown

The debate over school choice is intrinsically linked to broader fiscal priorities within the state. Recently, we reported on a significant clash between state leadership on balancing these priorities.

In what seems to be a contracted battle between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan on a plethora of issues, most assuredly related to Patrick’s endorsement of Phelan’s unsuccessful primary election challenger David Covey, Patrick accused Phelan of slow-walking what would typically be an innocuous joint letter between the Texas Governor, Lt. Governor, and House Speaker, describing budget priorities and providing instructions to state agencies as they prepare their legislative appropriations requests (LARs) ahead of the budget process in the upcoming 89th Legislative Session. Patrick pointed to Phelan submitting his own letter where school choice was noticeably absent as a priority. Phelan responded by making the case that it was a routine letter and that interim hearings are ongoing on all these issues.

Nevertheless, for proponents of school choice, potentially not having state leadership on the same page ahead of the upcoming legislative session is concerning.

Public Support for School Choice

Recent data suggests strong public support for school choice in Texas. We recently highlighted the data showing that a majority of Texans are in favor of ESAs. This support seems to stem from a desire for greater educational flexibility and the belief that competition can drive improvements in both government and private schools.

It is also worth noting that this issue has been put to Republican primary election voters multiple times in recent primary elections. In 2024, Republican primary voters considered Proposition 11:

Proposition 11: Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.

Ballot Proposition, March 2024 Republican Primary Election

Proposition 11 passed overwhelmingly with 79.52% (1,797,110 votes) in favor and 20.48% (462,722 votes) in opposition.

Source: Texas Secretary of State, Texas Election Results, 2024 March 5th Republican Primary

Republican primary voters also considered Proposition 9 in 2022:

Proposition 9: Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.

Ballot Proposition, March 2022 Republican Primary Election

Proposition 9 passed overwhelmingly with 87.78% (1,669,408 votes) in favor and 12.22% (232,454 votes) in opposition.

Source: Texas Secretary of State, Texas Election Results, 2022 March 1st Republican Primary

The issue is also a plank in the 2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform:

84. School Choice: We support further empowering all Texas families to choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education and funding which shall follow the student with no strings attached. We oppose regulations on homeschooling or the curriculum of private or religious schools and believe a constitutional amendment should be adopted accordingly. In lieu of funding, citizens may use property tax exemptions.

2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform

Moreover, the Republican Party of Texas considered “Parental Rights and Education Freedom” a legislative priority in 2022 and “School Choice for All” as a legislative priority in 2020.

Debunking Funding Myths

One of the primary arguments against school choice efforts is that it would potentially detract from government school funding. In a recent data/research project, we endeavored to debunk this myth by providing a detailed analysis of the state’s current school funding mechanisms. The financial implications of ESAs are often misunderstood. In fact, the leading legislation from the most recent legislative cycle would have established an ESA program outside the existing funding mechanisms for government schools in the state altogether.

The Economics of School Choice

To understand the potential economic impact of school choice and parental empowerment, it is essential to consider both the immediate and long-term effects. By giving parents the power to choose the educational approach that best suits their children, schools are incentivized to improve their offerings, thereby benefiting all students.

• Cost Effectiveness: One of the most compelling arguments in favor of school choice is cost-effectiveness. Charter schools, for instance, often operate with less funding than traditional government schools but still manage to produce comparable or better educational outcomes. This means taxpayers are getting more bang for their buck.

• Competition Drives Quality: In a free-enterprise system, competition almost always leads to better products and services. The same principle applies to education. When schools have to compete for students, they’re incentivized to improve their offerings, hire better teachers, and invest in resources that directly benefit the students.

• Economic Mobility: Education is a significant factor in economic mobility. Giving parents the option to send their kids to better schools can break the cycle of poverty and offer children a real shot at success.

Fiscal Responsibility

Lastly, it’s important to balance public service with fiscal responsibility. We recently explored data that emphasizes the need to ensure that taxpayer funds are used effectively. This perspective is critical when considering the implementation of ESAs, as it advocates for a system where taxpayers’ money is spent in a way that maximizes educational outcomes without unnecessary expenditure.

Conclusion

Understanding the history of school choice legislation in Texas is crucial for grasping the current landscape. This historical context underscores the persistent efforts to expand educational options in the state. Given that in recent legislative history, it is the Texas House that has primarily stood in the way of ESA implementation, the Texas House Public Education Committee’s meeting on August 12 is a pivotal moment for the future of school choice in the state.

This meeting represents an opportunity to advance policies that empower parents, improve educational outcomes, and ensure that public funds are used responsibly.

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