Students would be allotted tax dollars for private school education.
Children in the audience hold up pro-school choice plan signs while listening to Texas Governor Greg Abbot speak at a Parent Empowerment Rally in the auditorium of the Texas Capitol on Oct. 16, 2023.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging the state Legislature to pass a major new education bill that would provide tax dollars for families who leave public schools for private schooling across his state, which is home to some of the country's largest school districts.
S.B. 1 passed the Texas Senate earlier this month but has been pending in the state House, in another example of divisions between Texas Republicans on some major issues."Texas Republicans have once again sold out our kids' future ... Public dollars belong in public schools. Period," Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in an Oct 13. statement.
Texas is ranked 38th in spending per student and 28th in average teacher salary, per a National Education Association report published in April. "There's an easy way to get it done, and there's a hard way," Abbott said during a September town hall, threatening to call another special session or hand the decision to voters.Thirty-two states and Washington, D.C., have implemented some type of school choice program, with seven states adding programs and 10 states expanding existing programs in 2023, according to EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice.
The president and CEO of EdChoice, Robert Enlow, told ABC News that he believes school choice has gained traction for three reasons: there have been decades of efforts to educate the public on the concept; the emergence of charter schools, outside public school districts, helped normalize how it worked in practice; and the COVID-19 pandemic "supercharged" a movement toward alternative educational options.
For instance, "when you emphasize how a voucher or education savings account program would expand options for families, particularly for low-income families, you see higher levels of support than when you emphasize that taxpayer funds would be used to pay for the programs," West said.
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