crossroadstoday.com

In public hearings, during Capitol floor debates, and in rooms packed with their constituents, Texas lawmakers have pitched school vouchers as a tool that will primarily benefit low-income students — and not just, as their critics argue, offer taxpayer dollars to families already sending their children to private schools. “These are parents living paycheck by paycheck,” said Gov. Greg Abbott at a recent private school event in San Antonio. House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 2 — the signature school voucher proposals filed this year by each lawmaking chamber — would qualify virtually any family in Texas to receive taxpayer dollars through state-managed education savings accounts to fund their children’s private school tuition. If demand exceeds the $1 billion in proposed funding for the program, Republican lawmakers say they want to serve the most vulnerable Texans first. But both proposals’ broad eligibility — which would allow the vast majority of students in the state to apply — has prompted questions from education policy experts and public education advocates about whether Texas will live up to its promise of prioritizing the neediest children.