AUSTIN, Texas — 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 quickly sign it into law.
More than 30 states have implemented some sort of voucher program in the U.S., and about a dozen states in recent years have launched or expanded programs that make most students eligible. Texas’ version will be among the largest in the nation and is seen as a major victory for proponents who hope to push a similar effort on the federal level.
“School choice has come to Texas,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who controls the Senate who has pushed for a voucher program for nearly 20 years.
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 that now has more than 5 million students in public classrooms.
But supporters 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, when he spoke with a group of Republican lawmakers on a speakerphone call and urged them to approve it.
The program in its 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 home-schooling 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.
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.
“The one thing that is missing from our education process that has really made America great is competition,” said Republican state Sen. Bob Hall.
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.
And they argue it will put money in the pocket of wealthier families already sending their children to costly private schools.
The bill is “not about ‘school choice,’” the Senate Democratic caucus said in a statement. “It’s about public subsidization of private schools’ choice. It’s a step backwards for Texas.”
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.”
___ Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.