And so it begins…Senate Bill 2, School Vouchers
In Senate Bill 1, the proposed budget, The Texas Senate set aside $1 billion for fiscal year 2027 to pay for an “Education Savings Account” (school voucher) program should one be passed this session.
Interestingly, since the money is designated to be spent in 2027, not split across the two years of the biennium, that would mean the Senate is proposing $1 Billion dollars a year for the School Voucher program. That is double what was proposed in the last session of the Legislature.
Senate Bill 2 regarding a plan for School Vouchers/Education Savings Plans was filed in the Texas Senate on 1.24.25 and referred to the senate education committee that same day. It is scheduled for public hearing on 1.28.25. You can find my summary of this bill in a separate blog post: Summary: Senate Bill 2.
The Basics and a Little Math
This bill would pay up to $10,000 ($11,500 if the student has a disability) per student, for K-12 students to leave public school to attend private schools.
Roundly, this would pay for 100,000 students per year to participate in the voucher program. There are currently 5,500,000 public school students in Texas. So, about 2% of students in Texas could participate.
Waco ISD serves around 13,500 students; 2% of that would be 270 students. So, if everything were divided equally throughout Texas, about 270 students from Waco ISD could potentially participate in this voucher/ESA program (If there were spaces for them in local private schools). At 22 students per class for an elementary classroom, that would be about 12 classes of kids, about one classroom fewer than the number that go to West Avenue Elementary, the smallest of WISD’s 25 schools.
What if we spent that money on public schools instead?
If we divided the billion per year set aside for this program by the 5.5 million school children in Texas, that would be about $182 per child. $182 X 13,500 students in Waco ISD would be about an extra $2,400,000 for WISD for the Waco ISD budget.
A few points of reference:
- Waco High serves around 1,800 students. The Guidance Counseling and Evaluation Services budget for Waco High is around $1,100,000. This money would allow us to double the counseling program at Waco High.
- Average teacher pay in Waco ISD is around $56 K. This money would pay for about 42 additional teachers.
- Waco ISD employs about 990 teachers. If this money were divided among all the teachers in Waco ISD that would be about $2,400 more pay per year per teacher.
Are school vouchers the best use of this money? I feel like we would get more benefit for the kids of Waco and for the Waco community by investing this money in the public schools instead of sending it to private schools.
Let your elected officials know what you think!
If you live in McLennan County, you are in District 22 and your Senator is Brian Birdwell.
- Click here to e-mail the Office of Senator Brian Birdwell
- Telephone: (512) 463-0122
