Texas-Sized Boost for the National School Choice Movement
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is anticipated to approve a $1 billion legislation focused on private school vouchers and additional education-related expenditures.
By fall 2026, it’s projected that over 50 percent of American K–12 students will qualify for publicly funded school choice scholarships.
The organization suggests that Abbott’s action would shift the total number of children benefiting from universal school choice laws into a national majority.
“This has been over two decades in the making,” remarked Ryan Cantrell, the organization’s president of government affairs, to The Epoch Times. “Texas could serve as a model for many other states.”
The Texas bill, which has successfully passed both legislative chambers this month and would commence in the 2026–2027 academic year upon the governor’s approval, aims to allocate at least $10,000 per chosen child for an education savings account (ESA).
Priority will be given to children with special needs or those from low-income families if demand surpasses available funds, as specified in the bill.
Related Stories
All 6 million K-12 students in Texas will be eligible for consideration, and Abbott is poised to sign the bill shortly.
The state will allocate up to $30,000 to local schools for a disabled student’s individualized education plan, ensuring these funds follow the child to their chosen public or private institution.
As an education savings plan resembling a health savings account, it also covers expenses like school transportation, meals, and other related services.
Despite prior failures, universal school choice legislation gained traction in Texas due to the election cycle that welcomed 14 new legislators who provided the necessary votes.
With Abbott’s endorsement, national spending on universal school choice, encompassing tax credit scholarships, vouchers, charter schools, homeschooling, and other related services is projected to rise from $3 billion in 2021 to $9 billion next year, coinciding with an increase in the number of children benefiting from these programs from about 600,000 to over 1.5 million, according to Cantrell.
Growth of School Choice Options
School choice is a broad term encompassing various alternatives to assigned neighborhood schools, including options to select different schools within districts, or public charter and magnet schools.
Universal school choice, however, refers to the ability to choose a different public school district or access taxpayer-funded private school vouchers.
Opponents, including teachers and parents, argue this initiative diverts essential funds from already underfunded public schools.
The organization notes that 7 percent of students are in private schools financed by their families, with just 2 percent of children aged 5 to 18 currently benefiting from private school vouchers.
Many voucher programs require admission tests, do not exclude applicants already attending private schools, and typically offer up to 100 percent of their respective state’s per-pupil funding rate, usually under $15,000 for students not receiving special education services, as per the Education Commission of the States.
Katherine Munal Schulze, EdChoice’s policy and advocacy director, stated that universal school choice is expected to enhance outcomes for all schools by promoting competition and enabling specialization opportunities.
Debating Merits and Local Impact
EdTrust, an organization opposing school choice, cites Arizona as a cautionary example, asserting on its website that most students who received vouchers there were already attending private schools or were homeschooled before the Empowerment Scholarship Account program launched in 2022.
EdTrust highlighted that the program cost Arizona $738 million last year to fund tuition for families who would have paid average tuition rates of at least $7,000 out of pocket, many from affluent public school districts receiving no state assistance.
“Ultimately, vouchers have redirected funds to a select few, neglecting the majority of Arizona’s students and jeopardizing the state’s financial future,” the report from EdTrust remarks.
Munal Schulze, representing the rival organization EdChoice, shared data from the Arizona state legislature’s budget committee indicating that the state is currently managing a $560 million budget surplus.
She added that voucher programs in Louisiana, Florida, Indiana, and Tennessee already have waiting lists.
Some argue that it may be premature to evaluate program success since private school vouchers at a statewide level emerged post-COVID-19 pandemic, although the concept of school choice has existed for many years.
“Politically, states might hesitate to assess programs that are controversial, particularly before these programs reach a mature stage,” the report noted.
Future funding increases for expanding universal school choice programs will likely spur intense debates in the coming years.
Texas Democrats opposing SB 2 warned that if voucher demand develops as anticipated, the program’s cost could escalate from $1 billion to over $7 billion within a year.
In defense, supporters argued that residents will persist in contributing to the local school tax base via state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, and, in some regions, lottery revenues, regardless of whether their children attend private schools or if they have children at all.
“There’s a misconception that all these funds are disappearing,” stated Cantrell from the American Federation for Children. “Essentially, it’s not stripping local funding away.”
Private Schools Anticipate Strong Interest
Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private Schools Association, indicated that 941 accredited private schools in Texas will be eligible for participation in the bill’s voucher program.
While private school applications necessitate an admissions test and teacher recommendations, selection at most institutions is not overly competitive; it emphasizes ensuring that the school aligns with the student’s needs, according to Colangelo.
She noted that the vast majority of private schools in Texas are religious institutions that receive assistance from their parent organizations, such as the Catholic Diocese, to provide financial aid to students.
Annual tuition spans from as low as $3,000 in the Rio Grande Valley to over $30,000 at the elite facilities in Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
Homeschooling is increasingly favored by families in rural regions, while many parents are willing to commute to their preferred schools.
Colangelo expects many private schools to establish small satellite campuses to serve children in remote locations.
“It’s a start, but it may only benefit around 80,000 kids and it’s not a massive initiative,” she explained. “We are cautioning our families: there won’t be an overflow of ESA students in schools.”
“And I think many parents ultimately want to re-enroll their children in public schools.”
School choice advocates propose tax credit programs as a middle ground that they hope will receive bipartisan support.
National School Choice Initiative
On a national scale, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has introduced the Educational Choice for Children’s Act, aiming to provide up to $10 billion in yearly tax credits to stimulate donations to K-12 scholarship programs that could serve up to 2 million students annually.
“I sense a national momentum for this,” Cantrell affirmed, observing that Texas’s program acts as a barometer for other states contemplating vouchers or education savings accounts, while a concurrent national tax credit initiative represents another method to extend school choice in states where lawmakers lack the will to fund it.
“It provides options. If you find the established, entrenched education system unsatisfactory, you can support school choice if you wish.”
