Senate Bill 1 and Senate Bill 2<\/a>. Senate Bill 1 would advance school choice by using $500 million already approved in the general state budget for $8,000 education savings accounts (ESAs). That would reach 62,500 students and have the ability to expand over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSenate Bill 2 would grant an additional $5 billion of funding to public schools to increase per student funding, provide up to $10,000 in teacher bonuses, and increase school safety measures. But those Senate bills are not expected to pass the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is House Bill 1, introduced by state Rep. Brad Buckley, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, that will soon be voted on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
House Bill 1 would create an ESA program with $10,500 provided per student. The priority would be students with disabilities and those from low-income households. Additionally, the bill would increase per student funding, create teacher training programs, increase teacher pay, and add more funding to public district schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Rep. Cody Harris, a Republican from rural Palestine, Texas, was one of several Republicans who initially opposed expanding school choice in the state. In fact, he ran in 2018 as the anti-voucher politician. Yet, once he began serving on the House Public Education Committee earlier this year, his position changed. Harris told the Washington Examiner<\/em>, \u201cMy thinking started to change in the regular session earlier this year when a parent testified. His child was trapped in a failing public school. He had no way to get him out. If that was my child, I would have been beating down the door of the Capitol.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nAs the months progressed and countless testimonies were given, Harris was struck by the fact that \u201cthe arguments against ESAs were all about preserving a system and not about children.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris sees House Bill 1 as different from the past school choice bills that have failed. \u201cThis bill reaches low-income families first, and it also will help recruit, attract, and retain quality public school teachers, which is a tremendous issue in rural areas,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his fellow Republicans who represent rural areas in Texas, Harris asserted, \u201cIt is absurd that we can\u2019t be for an ESA and for public schools. Those are not mutually exclusive. House Bill 1 does a great job of doing both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those in favor of empowering parents with education options for their children outside of the public school system are driven by a deep commitment to educational freedom for all \u2013 not just the wealthy who can afford private school tuition or families with the ability to have a parent stay at home to provide homeschooling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conversely, those who oppose school choice are focused on power, money, and control. They want to preserve a system and the adults in it over the best interest of children \u2013 at least other people\u2019s children. In fact, several of the Democratic lawmakers in Texas who are working to block school choice from passing have either attended private school themselves or send their children to private schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now is the time for Texas Republicans to rally together and join Harris in voting to grant Texas\u2019 children the best possible education. They\u2019ve waited long enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Texas State Rep. Cody Harris, a Republican from rural Palestine, Texas, was one of several Republicans who initially opposed school choice. Yet, once he began serving on the House Public Education Committee earlier this year, his position changed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":6461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[1939,591,188,762,791,1911,1364,1937,194,78,205,199,85,1240,1936,1933,1499,74,1935,201,1934,936,1917,1905,1932,1915,1940,1938,1904,1914,1920],"coauthors":[1073],"class_list":["post-6460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-policy","category-school-choice","tag-committee-hearings","tag-education-freedom","tag-education-savings-accounts","tag-educational-freedom","tag-empower-parents","tag-empowering-parents","tag-esa","tag-gov-abbott","tag-homeschool","tag-k-12","tag-k-12-education","tag-low-income-students","tag-parents","tag-private-school","tag-rep-brad-buckley","tag-rep-cody-harris","tag-rural-republicans","tag-school-choice","tag-student-funding","tag-students-with-disabilities","tag-testimonies","tag-texas","tag-texas-education-freedom-act","tag-texas-house","tag-texas-house-bill-1","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-house-public-education-committee","tag-texas-lawmakers","tag-texas-senate","tag-texas-senate-bill-1","tag-texas-special-session"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Keri D. Ingraham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6460"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6460"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/6460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}