Texas lawmakers on Thursday passed a $1 billion education bill that allows families to use public money to pay for private school tuition, a major victory for school voucher proponents nationwide that was cheered on by President Donald Trump.
The measure won final approval from the state Senate and now heads to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had muscled the GOP-majority Legislature to pass the bill and has vowed to sign it into law quickly.
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WATCH HEREMore than 30 states have implemented some sort of voucher program in the U.S. But Texas will be among the largest and seen as a major victory for proponents who hope to push a similar effort on the federal level.
For decades, the push in Texas had failed in the face of stiff resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans who called it a threat to public schools in a state with more than 5 million students in public classrooms.
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SIGN UP But support gradually gained ground, and Abbott, a three-term governor, threw his political muscle behind it in the 2024 elections by backing numerous candidates who would support it. That effort built the majority support the issue needed after decades of failure.
Trump played a key role in getting the measure through a critical state House vote a week ago. On a speakerphone call, he spoke with a group of Republican lawmakers and urged them to approve it.
The program's first year would be capped at $1 billion and used by up to 90,000 students, but it could grow to nearly $4.5 billion per year by 2030. The money can be used for private school tuition or costs for homeschooling and virtual learning programs. Families could get up to $10,000 each year per student under the program, and a student with disabilities would be eligible for as much as $30,000 per year.
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News from around the state of Texas.
Supporters of the measure say the vouchers can help parents get their children out of poor-performing public schools and create competition that will force public schools to improve.
Critics, however, argue it will weaken public schools by draining money and resources and giving them to private schools, who can have selective enrollment and may not operate under some of the same rules.
They argue that it will increase the incomes of wealthier families who already send their children to costly private schools.
The issue is not settled among Republicans nationwide. On Monday, North Dakota's Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong vetoed a private school voucher program in that state, saying the bill fell “far short of truly expanding choice as it only impacts one sector of our student population.”
