$1 billion.
That’s the proposed allocation of money for the Texas House of Representatives’ state voucher plan House Bill 3 and the Texas State Senate Bill 2.
A similar plan was introduced to the Texas Legislature in 2023, but it was unceremoniously denied by the House. However, representatives who opposed vouchers were primaried before the 2024 elections due to strong influence by pro-voucher political action groups.
Vouchers are presented as “school choice,” giving families eligible for K-12 education access to public, taxpayer dollars to pay for private schools and some homeschooling costs.
However, they only give Texas families the illusion of choice. Rather, they’re an attempt by lawmakers to dismantle the public school system as we know it. Vouchers give power to unregulated private schools and wealthy families in exchange for the most vulnerable people in our society having worse public education opportunities.
We already have school choice in the state of Texas. With some exceptions, every child between the ages of six to 19 is required to enroll in school, and parents can put their children in several alternative schooling programs, such as private schools, charter schools, magnet schools, homeschooling and online learning programs.
When asked, most people — including myself — are in favor of parents having the right to choose what school their child attends. But why do we need to take tax-paying citizens’ money and use it to fund private for-profit school systems? Parents already have school choice, and it’s deceptive to market school vouchers as a way for people to have access to these options.
According to House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 2, school vouchers would grant parents or guardians of school-aged children access to an Education Savings Account, also referred to as an ESA. This account would contain a specified amount of money that would be equivalent to the cost of school for one child for a single school year.
The problem many people — including public schools, parents and certain lawmakers — have with school vouchers is that they are using taxpayer money to pay for private school education. Private education is less academically regulated than public schools and opens the door to lessening the education quality of Texas students.
Vouchers aren’t worth it.
There has been no conclusive evidence that vouchers improve education outcomes for students, and it may harm public school students by diverting crucial funding.
The Texas government funds public schools based on the number of students in a school and their attendance. In Texas, 73% of schools are underfunded, and even a single student leaving can have a severe impact on the operations of a school.
The average cost of attending a private school in Texas was $11,000 per student for the 2023-24 school year. The Texas voucher plan detailed in HB 3 and SB 2 would provide up to $10,000 per student. This is not enough to cover the average private school tuition, and it is nowhere close to covering the more expensive schools in the state, which can get up to $37,900 per school year.
Rural schools would be especially impacted by voucher programs and could be put at risk of closing down. This would be catastrophic, as many rural families do not have convenient access to alternative education programs. The passing of a voucher program will disproportionately affect rural Texans, which make up some of the highest levels of poverty in the state of Texas.
Low-income families will be disproportionately affected by vouchers. Most low-income families won’t receive enough from vouchers to afford private school and will continue sending their children to underfunded public schools, which would be hurt by vouchers.
Texans are being sold a lie. Vouchers aren’t going to make our children’s education any better. If anything, it will force schools with already limited budgets to make cuts to necessary programs that support the lives of all children who need them.
Public schools are the great equalizer in our country. We must do what we can to protect the education of the next generation. They deserve properly-funded schools and to not have the lawmakers we voted for attack the institutions we rely on daily.
Government spending is being scrutinized more than ever before. We are quick to attack important governmental aid programs such as SNAP, TANF and USAID — yet why are we OK with spending over $1 billion on an education program that has been proven to be ineffective?
School vouchers are a scam. It’s time for Texas lawmakers to vote nay and make them a thing of the past.
Wyatt Pickering is a business honors and finance sophomore and opinion writer for The Battalion.
