AUSTIN, Texas – Republicans are making a last-ditch attempt to pass a school voucher-like bill this session by tethering it to teacher pay raises.
On Monday, the Senate education committee will consider school funding legislation that increases salaries for public school teachers, while also providing families with $8,000 a year to spend on private education.
The move would need sign off from the GOP-led Senate and House, where voucher-like efforts have met with resistance from a coalition of rural Republicans and Democrats.
Gov. Greg Abbott recently threatened to bring legislators back to Austin this summer if they don’t deliver a substantial school choice package. He promised to veto a more limited Houst voucher-like plan that applied only to students with special needs or in failing public schools, saying it was too small.
It remains to be seen whether tying the teacher pay raises to the education savings accounts, or ESA, will win over enough lawmakers. The session ends on Monday.
While the Senate already passed a voucher-like plan this year, the House has not taken it up because the proposal failed to get out of committee.
The lower chamber overwhelming greenlit the teacher pay raises included the sweeping new proposal, which would spread $3.8 billion across the state’s public schools, according to a summary of the measure. Texas teacher salaries lag behind other states, and the pandemic exacerbated a shortage of public educators.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
