Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a faculty selection invoice into legislation on Saturday that may allocate $1 billion for a voucher program that permits dad and mom to make use of public funds to pay for his or her kid’s personal faculty tuition.
This system’s implementation caps off a yearslong effort by Republicans who’ve been advocating for college selection. Voucher supporters have lengthy targeted on Texas, the place earlier efforts failed amid resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans.
Final month, President Donald Trump referred to as on state lawmakers forward of a key vote on the invoice to lastly ship the measure to Abbott’s desk. The Texas Senate handed Senate Invoice 2 by a party-line 19-12 vote on April 24 after the state Home accredited the invoice by an 86-63 vote the week earlier than.
“After I ran for reelection in 2022, I promised faculty selection for the households of Texas,” Abbott stated earlier than signing the invoice on the governor’s mansion. “As we speak, we ship on that promise.”
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a faculty selection invoice into legislation on Saturday. (REUTERS/Callaghan O’hare)
Abbott was joined by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, state Home Speaker Dustin Burrows, invoice writer and state Sen. Brandon Creighton, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, faculty selection advocates and college students and their households.
“From right here ahead, [Texas students] could have limitless potential and limitless choices in schooling to pursue for the remainder of their path and schooling and what their households do greatest, and that in of itself was definitely worth the journey,” Creighton stated.
Texas joins greater than 30 different states that have already got comparable applications. The Lone Star State could have the biggest voucher program within the nation.
Faculty vouchers have been Abbott’s most important focus this 12 months, following final 12 months’s election cycle wherein he referred to as for Republican major voters to take away from workplace GOP lawmakers who voted in opposition to an analogous invoice within the final legislative session that the governor had supported.
The Lone Star State could have the biggest voucher program within the nation. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Pictures)
Supporters of the invoice say it should give dad and mom extra choices by permitting them to take their youngsters out of poor-performing public schools in favor of different public or personal faculty selections.
“Gone are the times that households are restricted to solely the colleges assigned by authorities,” Abbott stated. “The day has arrived that empowers dad and mom to decide on the college that’s greatest for his or her baby.”
Democrats and Republicans in rural districts who’ve criticized this system argue that it’s going to pull monetary assets from Texas’ public school students and subsidize the personal schooling of rich households.
“Let’s be clear: this invoice is simply greatest for the richest individuals within the state, and rural Texas particularly will get the shaft,” Texas Democratic Occasion chairman Kendall Scudder stated in a press release. “To prime all of it off, Abbott’s faculty shut-downs are in full-swing without end.”
Texas joins greater than 30 different states that have already got comparable applications. (Brandon Bell/Getty Pictures)
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Beginning subsequent faculty 12 months, households can obtain $10,000 per 12 months to assist pay for his or her kid’s personal faculty tuition or prices for home-schooling and digital studying applications. Kids with disabilities can qualify for as a lot as $30,000 per 12 months.
This system will probably be capped at $1 billion for the primary 12 months and canopy as much as 90,000 college students. However by 2030, it might price as much as $4.5 billion per 12 months.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
