Gov. Abbott talks school vouchers in Fort Worth. But can his plan pass the Texas House?

During a visit to a Catholic school in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott told the crowd of mostly private school students and parents that Texas doesn’t need to choose between strong public schools and school choice. The state can have both, he said.

Speaking at Nolan Catholic High School, Abbott pushed a plan to use state money to pay for private school tuition, framing the issue as a matter of empowering parents to make the best decisions regarding their children’s education.

No parent, Abbott said, would knowingly send their children to a failing school if they had any other option. For many families, public schools are the best option, he said. But often, students are trapped in public schools that don’t meet their needs because their families are unable to afford alternatives, he said.

“We, as a state, have to help those families,” he said.

The visit was a part of a tour of Christian school campuses Abbott is making to promote his proposed education savings account plan, a voucher-like program that would give families public money to pay for private school tuition and other education-related expenses. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have identified education savings accounts as a top priority for the current legislative session.

But the plan faces an uphill battle in the Texas House of Representatives, where lawmakers appear hesitant to allow taxpayer dollars to go to private schools. And researchers say that similar programs implemented in other states have been associated with academic declines, often lasting for years.

Abbott accuses schools of fostering ‘woke, left agenda’

Touting his own background as the product of public schools in Longview and Duncanville, Abbott said the state’s public education system has a critical role to play. But he accused public schools of trying to indoctrinate students into a “woke, left agenda” at the expense of math, science and reading instruction.

“Our schools are for education, not indoctrination,” he said.

Bishop Michael Olson of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth thanked Abbott for his work on the issue. Quoting Pope Paul VI, Olson said parents have a God-given right to decide how best to educate their children. But financial constraints keep many families from having a legitimate choice, he said.

Abbott’s plan would recognize parents, not the state, as the primary educators of their children, Olson said, and give them the responsibility for deciding how best to provide that education. He argued that the education system as it exists today reduces education to a commodity to be bought on the marketplace by those with means and imposed by the state to those unable to afford any other option.

Voucher plans led to academic declines in Indiana, Louisiana

The benefits of school vouchers and voucher-like programs for the students who use them aren’t clear. Research into school voucher programs in Louisiana and Indiana found moderate to large declines in academic performance, particularly in math, among students who transferred to private schools using vouchers.

In a study released in 2018, researchers at the University of Kentucky and Notre Dame University found that students who accepted vouchers during the initial rollout of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, the largest school voucher program in the country, lost substantial ground in math. Those losses persisted for years, according to the study. The program showed no clear effects on student performance in English, according to the study.

When Indiana launched its program in 2011, vouchers were only available to public school students in low-income families. Joe Waddington, a professor in the University of Kentucky’s College of Education and one of the researchers who conducted the study, told the Star-Telegram last month that many of the students who accepted vouchers in the early days of the program had struggled academically in public schools.

When those students moved to private schools, many struggled to keep up with the higher expectations and increased rigor of their classes, Waddington said. The first year was particularly challenging for those students, Waddington said, in large part because of the volume of homework they were expected to do.

A 2019 study looking at Louisiana’s school voucher program found similar results: researchers from the University of Arkansas concluded that academic performance declined among students who accepted vouchers, particularly in math. In a previous study, researchers found that those students tended to regain some of that ground after four years. But in the 2019 study, researchers found “large negative impacts” that persisted for years, especially in math.

Voucher bill faces uphill battle in Texas

A bill in the Texas legislature would give families who pull their children out of public schools up to $8,000 in state money to put toward private school tuition. Under the bill, districts with fewer than 20,000 students would be protected from funding cuts that come with declines in enrollment. But bigger school districts like Fort Worth, Crowley and Northwest would get no such protection.

Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the bill’s author, said in a statement that the bill would give parents the ability to make the best decisions regarding their children’s education. Creighton, who chairs the Senate education committee, said the bill would ultimately be good for the entire state because it would foster competition and innovation among schools.

The bill, which is Senate Bill 8, passed out of the Senate earlier this month by an 18-13 vote. On Monday, it was referred to the House Public Education Committee, where it awaits a hearing.

But the voucher proposal is expected to face headwinds in the House. Earlier this month, the House signaled opposition to vouchers in Texas when lawmakers passed an amendment to its version of the budget prohibiting the use of state dollars for school vouchers or similar programs, including education savings accounts.

The amendment passed 86-52, with 11 members present but not voting.

“The reality is that I believe that we have never seen any type of competition harm an industry,” said Rep. Nate Schatzline, according to a transcript of the debate. “Our public schools are no different, and this has got to be something that we get to discuss and work towards as a body. I believe that parents should be empowered in the State of Texas.”

The Fort Worth Republican urged lawmakers to oppose the amendment.

Rep. Abel Herrero, a Robstown Democrat who authored the amendment, said state dollars are public funds for public schools.

“If you support our public schools, if you support our public school teachers, if you support our public charter schools, then you would support by voting yes for this amendment,” he said, according to the transcript in the House journal, logging the day’s proceedings.

The final version of the state’s budget, as negotiated by the House and Senate, is still to come. The legislative session ends on May 29.

Staff writer Eleanor Dearman contributed to this report