Superintendent Update for October 17, 2023:
Bills presented in the special session which convened this past Monday in Austin have had some movement the past week. The Senate approved Senate Bill 1 which would create “education savings accounts”, a voucher program, that would allow families to access $8,000 of public funds to pay for private school expenses and other items such as transportation, textbooks, tutorial programs, or school uniforms. This bill is pretty much identical to a previous bill passed by the Senate but that died in the House during regular session. The bill passed on Thursday with a 18-13 vote of the Senate.
The Senate also approved Senate Bill 2 which would designate $5.2 billion into school districts to help with rising costs and teacher pay raises. The bill also would increase the basic allotment of $6,160 to $6,235 per student. These dollars could be used for teacher pay raises, security upgrades and day-to-day operations of a district. The bill also includes a one-time pay bonus for teachers. Teachers in a district with less than 5,000 students would receive a $10,000 payment. Those in districts with more than 5,000 students would receive a $3,000 payment.
Governor Abbott said Thursday that once the education savings account proposal is passed in both chambers, he will add teacher pay raises to the special session agenda. In Texas, the Governor dictates what can and cannot be addressed in a special session.
Both bills will now move on to the Texas House for their consideration. Traditionally the more conservative House members have not supported education savings plans or any form of vouchers. Their main argument has been that tax payer dollars should not be used to fund private education. The private schools are not required to accept all students nor are they required to participate in the testing and accountability required in public schools.
It will be interesting to see what the next three weeks of deliberation yields. The possibility of teachers receiving a pay increase is exciting and needed. If it is dependent on Texas creating a voucher system, those raises will be in jeopardy. I do believe that without some form of vouchers being passed, the $32 billion surplus will not be used to fund increases to schools and teachers. And, ultimately, I believe vouchers will morph into less dollars for public school children.