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Passage of ESA spells trouble for Texas children
Educational Savings Accounts — a voucher scheme by another name — offer families no real choice, as private schools control all enrollment decisions. Recent reporting by ProPublica found that Texas private schools are significantly whiter than their surrounding communities, with white students making up more than double the enrollment of public schools: 55.6% to 26.4%. This disparity underscores that all the guardrails that protect against discrimination based on religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, sex and disability disappear in private schools.
Private schools are not accountable to families or communities — their boards are not elected, and frequently not even in the same state — and there is no evidence that they improve educational quality.
Voucher plans across the country have proven to be burdensome on state budgets, and the Texas voucher will eventually add billions of dollars to the state budget without an additional funding mechanism. The universal voucher plan that Gov. Abbott signed has been used in other states to funnel tax-paid subsidies to wealthy parents who already were sending their children to private schools, while many low-income families, even with vouchers, can’t afford private school tuition.
Texas public schools, where the vast majority of students will continue to be educated, are underfunded. Texas school districts have not received an increase to the per-student Basic Allotment since 2019. With a $20 billion surplus and $23 billion balance in the Rainy Day Fund, as forecast by the state comptroller, the Legislature has no excuse not to increase funding for public schools. Public tax dollars belong in public schools, not diverted to private business interests.
Committee Testimony
Follow our advocacy efforts at the Capitol! TSTA represents the interests of our members and Texas students through lobbying efforts and testimony during session.
CSHB 2 Article 1 explainer, Teacher compensation bill as written
Key features of the proposed replacement for STAAR
House Higher Ed, CSHB 232 Harms college opportunities for Texas students
TX DOGE: Charter review and accountability
House Pub Ed: Charter lottery
Senate Ed: Early Literacy and Numeracy
Senate Ed: Instructional Materials
Senate Ed: Administrative duties
House Pub Ed: Parental rights
House Pub Ed: Instructional materials
House Pub Ed: Testing
House Pub Ed: Student removal
House Pub Ed: Vouchers and HB 3
House Pub Ed: School finance bill, in concert with our coalition partners
Senate Finance: School safety
Texas Senate Education PK-16: Virtual Schools
House Pensions, Investments & Financial Services: TRS
Senate Education PK-16: DEI
House Pensions, Investments & Financial Services: TRS
Senate Education PK-16: TSTA opposes SB 26
Senate Finance: Public School finance and TRS
Senate Education PK-16: TSTA vehemently opposes vouchers
Agency and Coalition Testimony
TSTA hosts a team of dedicated educational policy experts to represent the interests of TSTA members and students at the State Board of Education, State Board for Educator Certification and the Texas Education Agency. Here we’ll post recent testimony that we’ve presented to these agencies and in conjunction with our coalition partners.
SBOE: Delay Mater Academy approval
Reading and Mathematics Academies
Texas Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence: TSTA is opposed to more guns in schools
TEA: Teacher Incentive Allotment rule comments
