In a move meant to signal inevitable passage of a school voucher program, Rep. Brad Buckley on Wednesday announced that 75 other Texas House members had signed on as co-authors of his proposal to create such a program.
If the author and all co-authors vote for House Bill 3, it would pass the lower chamber.
The controversial program, also called school choice, would use public money to pay for children’s private school tuition. Such proposals divided House Republicans in 2023.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who named school vouchers a priority item this session, called the announcement “a remarkable achievement.”
“This session, Texas will usher in a new era where families have the opportunity to choose the learning environment that meets the unique needs of their children,” Abbott said in a statement, vowing to sign into law the “biggest launch of any universal school choice program in the nation.”
All 76 House members who have signed onto HB 3 are Republicans.
After the House shot down similar legislation in 2023, Abbott in 2024 helped fuel the campaigns of GOP primary challengers to Republican incumbents who opposed school vouchers, coming away largely successful in those races.
HB 3 is part of Buckley’s signature package of education bills that he released last week, which includes an $8 billion school funding bill.
In a statement to the American-Statesman last week, Buckley, R-Salado, said HB 3 “provides new opporutnities and options when parents need another tool in the toolbox to provide the best education environment for their children.”
The Texas Senate on Feb. 5 passed its own version of a voucher proposal, Senate Bill 2.
As per their bills, each chamber is proposing a $1 billion annual school voucher program.
The Senate proposal offers $10,000 to each participating student, while the House bill would give children 85% of how much a public school student receives on average each year — or about $10,500 this year, according to an American-Statesman analysis.
Under the House bill, students in special education, whose needs are typically more costly, would receive the funding they’d be entitled to if they had attended a public school, up to $30,000. The Senate bill gives $11,500 for special education students.
Both bills would provide children up to $2,000 for homeschooling.
The House proposal sets out a tiered system for school voucher eligibility, prioritizing children with special education needs in families at or below 500% of the federal poverty line — about $160,000 for a family of four. Then, the program would prioritize children from all families at 200% of the federal poverty line — about $64,000 for a family of four. Children in other income brackets are placed in other tiers of priority.
The Senate bill prioritizes special education and low-income students, but Democratic senators criticized the proposal for defining low-income as 500% of the poverty line.
In a statement Wednesday, Buckley said he planned to hear HB 3 soon in a committee, which is the first step in getting a bill considered in the House.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House majority signals support for school voucher bill
