Texas lawmakers have been debating the merits of school choice, or education savings programs, for weeks. A sweeping plan passed in the Senate but has been stalled in the House because a couple dozen rural Republican lawmakers don’t think it will benefit their districts.
A revised version of the bill that a House committee is considering would offer an education savings account to about 800,000 students, a fraction of the 5.5 million originally promised, and focus the plan on students in failing schools. It would replace the loathed STAAR test — something that might compel resistant Republicans. So far, Gov. Greg Abbott has balked, even threatening to go into special session if the Legislature doesn’t pass expansive school choice. He should reconsider.
“This latest version does little to provide meaningful school choice, and legislators deserve to know that it would be vetoed if it reached my desk,” Abbott said in a written statement. He said the latest version “provides less funding for special education students than the original House version of the Senate bill and denies school choice to low-income families who desperately need expanded education options for their children.”
