Abbott’s Texas of Tomorrow includes School Choice program for all Students

Governor Greg Abbott gave his traditional State of the State Speech on Thursday night, laid out his vision for Texas and set priorities for Texas policymakers who are in Austin for the Legislative Session. In his speech he outlined his eight priorities, one of those top priorities being the empowerment of parents as it relates to education, and calling it an “emergency item” which puts the issue on a fast track through the legislative process.

Republicans have been pushing for a voucher program as a way to empower parents with educational choice in Texas for many years, so this announcement by the Governor should come as no surprise.

One idea Abbott is pushing to “empower parents” is a program called an Education Savings Account. The Governor is proposing that we extend education savings accounts to all students in Texas schools. ESAs allow parents to withdraw their children from public schools and receive funds from the state of Texas to cover tuition and fees at the non-public school option of their choice.

Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, filed Senate Bill 176, which would create an education savings account program. Under Middleton’s legislation, parents who opt out of the state’s public education system would receive about $10,000 a year to pay for an alternative to public education.

We asked our Hansford County Superintendents to share their personal opinions on school choice and how it could impact our communities.

Dan Gist, superintendent of Spearman ISD shared this “I don’t think sending local taxpayers’ monies to another district would sit well with our rural community. Fortunately, our schools score extremely high academically, so students will not have justification for leaving due to poor performance”. He went on to ask this question “Why don’t we just focus on supporting and funding our local public schools adequately? I will never understand why public schools seem to play second-fiddle to policies that could diminish them.”

Gruver ISD superintendent Wade Callaway shared this sentiment, “The things the public sees on the news in the big city public schools are really not what is going on here in Hansford County. Our three districts still adhere to socially conservative values and are overseen by really good school boards. We also have teachers, for the most part, who grew up in this area and do not want to see “their school” transform into the wildly liberal school there are in Austin, Houston, Dallas, etc.”

Vouchers are one of the issues where groups who support and oppose vouchers align around place and not necessarily partisanship. It is a rural vs urban debate, not Republican vs Democrat. Education savings accounts for all were proposed to lawmakers back in 2017, but the proposal didn’t get much traction because rural communities in particular were concerned that vouchers would harm public schools because they take away resources.

Understanding the importance rural districts will play in this debate, Governor Abbott has launched a whistle stop tour through rural Texas, including a stop in Amarillo this week, to talk about this policy priority.

While vouchers have become a key Republican policy solution to addressing failing schools, the state constitution provides that “it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools” With the legislative session underway down in Austin with the stage is set for a conversation about the best way to balance “empowering parents” while fulfilling their duty to Texas students and the opinions of rural Texans will likely play an important role in the outcome.