From The Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll add teacher pay to the special session — but only if lawmakers pass school voucher bill
Date Posted: 10/13/2023
"Gov. Greg Abbott says he’ll add teacher pay to the special session — but only if lawmakers pass school voucher bill" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Just hours after the Senate gave initial approval to its priority school voucher bill, Gov. Greg Abbott said he would add teacher raises and public school funding to his special session agenda if the Texas Legislature passes vouchers.
Abbott, who spoke Thursday at a parental rights event organized by the conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, so far has only listed education savings accounts, a voucher-like program, as the only education item in his agenda for the special session. Though lawmakers have already drafted a bill on public school funding, it cannot pass them unless Abbott adds the issue to his agenda.
“I want to make sure we provide a carrot to make sure this legislation gets passed,” Abbott said of vouchers. “Once [education savings accounts] are passed, I will put on the legislative agenda full funding for public education, including teacher pay raises for teachers across the state.”
During the regular session, lawmakers failed to pass a number of policies to support teachers amid a standoff over school vouchers. The stalemate came despite policy recommendations to better teachers’ working conditions from a task force assembled by Abbott last year to examine the state’s worsening teacher shortage.
Teachers were the only state employees to not receive a raise in the regular session and have said they feel their raises are being “held hostage” to a vouchers bill.
Abbott, who took the stage at the summit just a few blocks from the Texas Capitol, said he thinks the House is at the “one-yard line” from passing education savings accounts. A coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans have historically blocked voucher legislation in the House.
Since before the special session, the governor’s office has been working with a group of House Republicans to draft a voucher bill that currently stands at 181 pages, Abbott said.
“I will not stop until we get [education savings accounts] passed in the state of Texas,” he added.
Earlier in the daylong event, several pro-voucher, Republican representatives laid out paths to passing the proposed bill in the House.
Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, said previous legislation has failed because voucher opponents, particularly teachers and superintendents, are “highly motivated” to stop the program.
“Some of the Republicans that aren’t voting for it are very scared to go against the school, principal, superintendent,” Frank said. “These are very well-connected people in every district in the state. Those are not people that you want to cross, if you can help it politically. I don’t like crossing them.”
Frank said he’s also spoken to rural representatives who argue that private schools either don’t exist in their district or are more expensive than the proposed $8,000 voucher. But if residents had access to money to specifically pay for private school, the market would respond by establishing schools that more closely fit their budgets, Frank said. He added that he would support a voucher closer to $10,000 to reflect the average cost of private schools in Texas.
To garner public support for vouchers, Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, said advocates need to frame the program as giving taxpayers who opt out of the public school system their dollars back. Voucher opponents have often voiced concerns that an education savings account program would siphon away public school funds.
“I had a superintendent yesterday tell me, ‘How can you support public dollars going into private schools?’ And I said, ‘I just don't agree with the premise of your question because it is parents’ dollars to begin with,’” Troxclair said.
Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/10/12/greg-abbott-school-vouchers-teacher-raises/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
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@ Kim -- More funding in public schools has not worked. The funds get allocated in the wrong places and are mismanaged. Teacher stress has only increased when budgets have ironically increased. Please allow the voucher program to pass so teacher''s can get a pay raise. It''ll be a win win. We need to try it before giving up on the idea! Please give teachers a pay raise regardless. We can''t go another year without anything.
This is just like when Texas gave loans so that kids could afford college. Colleges just raised tuition. If Private schools currently cost $10,000 and you give everyone $10,000 then everyone could afford Private school. The allure of Private school is to get their kids to smaller class sizes and in an environment that is not like public school. Those private schools are just going to raise their price $10,000 to keep their numbers and cliental manageable. Also... In Arkansas a huge percentage of people keep their kids at home and keep the money. Even if you have to send the money to an accredited institution. It doesn''t take a rocket scientist to create a loophole and sell an online school program for "$10,000," and pocket $2,000 and give the remaining $8,000 back to the “homeschool” mom. It will just be another version of insurance fraud. With no accountability system in place for homeschool or private school there will be no way of knowing that these kids are actually getting an education until they try to graduate high school. Also... Some mother''s do a great job of homeschooling. There is an entire support system of parents who work hard to homeschool at a high level. So I''m not referring to everyone, but some people will continue to have more children and make fifty, sixty even seventy thousand dollars to "homeschool." A certain population of parents will take advantage of the system and these kids will be turned out on the streets to fend for themselves. They will join gangs and sell drugs. Private and homeschool supporters have long insulted public school teachers by calling them glorified babysitters. There is no credit for capturing kids'' hearts and showing them what it is to be a useful member of society. There is no credit for modeling compassion, integrity, working for a living, building relationships, not to mention the fact that we actually do teach the TEKS. I had a friend that homeschools say, "I am on your side... I know that you are educating tomorrow''s leaders." I told her I did think that I was educating tomorrow''s leaders and that there were many good ways to do that. I told her that the UIL extracurricular activities alone would be impossible to recreate.(Ask me later how being part of a TEAM makes you a better leader.) But, it wasn''t the leaders I was worried about who were going to go hungry. I wasn''t tomorrow''s leaders that I was worried were going to roam the streets. It wasn''t tomorrow''s leaders that were going to rob her house while she was out at the grocery store at 1:00 in the afternoon because they were not being cared for. It wasn''t tomorrow''s leaders that were going to get neglected and no one would ever know. Lord be with a society without public school teachers committed to not leaving a single child behind.
Please do no pass school vouchers. You are not considering our students that cannot pay the difference in private tuition. Holding our kids hostage to pass you own agenda is despicable! If the state has an extra $8000 per student then give it to public schools so our students get the education they deserve. Segregation is against the law!
Everyone needs to share this. Holding our kids hostage will not work for me!