School vouchers

[Texans42]

I might be misunderstanding this, but it sounds like if you are one of those who get a voucher, the state will pay $10k towards a private school of your choosing. However...I don't think there's a "tax credit" or anything that offsets this. Your personal tax situation doesn't change (i.e. you would still be paying the same ISD taxes based on where you live, assuming you own and don't rent).

I feel like I hear some people saying "I want to be able to use my tax dollars to pay for my kids to go to a school that I choose", which is not what is being proposed (as I understand it). Any confirmation or correction to this from the GS?

The ROI of the 10k voucher depends on what you pay in school taxes. Even if you rent you pay school taxes as that property is assessed.

if you lived in a higher end neighborhood and pay 15k in school taxes, then you are essentially still paying in 5k into the general school fund, since your district doesn’t get it, if you took a voucher.

if you are in a lower income come area, your school is probably already getting money from other redistributions from wealthier districts any away, but your local district wouldn’t get the 10k for your kids butt in the seat.

[txbowman12]

who cares if tuition goes up, the parent will most likely be already subsidizing with voucher money. With that said assuming private schools just raise rates, also assumes they don’t want students. If a student can no longer attend due to financial reasons, then the school is getting zero money for tuition, regardless of the source. No different than before with no voucher money.

If what’s left is the same kids and parents others are trying to get away from so be it. I’ll be ****ed if my kids are beholden to a shrinking ship. I value their education to
much.

There are 100k vouchers a year, spread across 5.84m students. That's a 1.7% chance you will get a voucher. But there are only 350k students attending private schools in the state. So adding 100k (30% increase) of students is going to drive tuitions up. Most good private schools have waitlists as it is. It's not like quality capacity can be spun up overnight. So to me, it begs the question, will this really help Texas students in aggregate?

[RiverRat1]

This is my main concern with the voucher program. People talk about how public schools need more competition, but in reality, there's pretty good chance that this will cripple whatever is left of the public education system. Private schools can pick and choose who they want to accept, public schools can't. That's about as fair of a competition as the Algerian guy that won the women's boxing olympics.
My prediction is this will be like the EV tax credits. $10k of government funding available? Guess tuition just went up 10k a year at every private school.
I also have a real issue with the money behind this. A billionaire from Pennsylvania donates $6m to Abbot and he makes this his number one issue? Doesn't sit well with me

No it won't. Tuition may go up some at first because demand for private schools will take a big jump. But investors will flock in, build schools and tuition will come back down.

[txbowman12]

No it won't. Tuition may go up some at first because demand for private schools will take a big jump. But investors will flock in, build schools and tuition will come back down.

In the long run, it should, in theory. But if you think there is not going to be a spike in tuition costs from a sudden injection of that level of increased demand, then we will have to agree to disagree.

New entrants will certainly come to market, but will they will be coming in and undercutting the newly inflated prices. Will the average tuition cost settle at a higher or lower number than it is today? Time will tell. I'm betting it's higher and that quality is diluted. Hope I am wrong.

The same group overseeing the current poor quality education system is going to be overseeing the new, more complex system, so I'll be a skeptic. I don't think you fix anything until you get rid of "no child left behind" and our current "college or bust" approach.

[East6101]

We will always pay school taxes! Those who do private school will continue. Those who home school will continue. Those who send to public school will continue, with maybe a shot at choice. Those without kids but pay will continue.
The biggest difference is we as individuals and individual families will have a choice as to where it goes! Anytime we can give government back to the governed we should get on board!
Good grief…

[RiverRat1]

In the long run, it should, in theory. But if you think there is not going to be a spike in tuition costs from a sudden injection of that level of increased demand, then we will have to agree to disagree.

New entrants will certainly come to market, but will they will be coming in and undercutting the newly inflated prices. Will the average tuition cost settle at a higher or lower number than it is today? Time will tell. I'm betting it's higher and that quality is diluted. Hope I am wrong.

The same group overseeing the current poor quality education system is going to be overseeing the new, more complex system, so I'll be a skeptic. I don't think you fix anything until you get rid of "no child left behind" and our current "college or bust" approach.

We do not disagree. I literally said tuition will go up at first due to more demand. As far as where it settles, that will be higher if for no other reason than inflation. I do not think it will settle 100% higher as some suggest or even 30-40% higher.

[Shane]

No it won't. Tuition may go up some at first because demand for private schools will take a big jump. But investors will flock in, build schools and tuition will come back down.

Do you know of any for profit private schools? I'm not aware of any, but maybe there are a few. All the ones I know of are non-profits, and they're not raking in huge profits.

More demand for private schools will help some of them expand their capacity, and that could help tuition come down a little or at least increase less over time, as they can spread fixed costs out across a larger student base.

[Kevin]

How can this help people that aren’t wealthy?

[60 Deluxe]

I wrote and posted this on Facebook this morning.

I tortured myself this morning reading every word of the proposed school choice bill misnamed as The Education Savings Account Program. One quick read through, and I likely won't do it again. A couple of big things stuck out like a sore thumb. First, eight per cent of the funds are carved out for administration. Administration is for registration facilitators and for administrators who will compile the list of approved education providers, distribute the funds, monitor the eligibility of students, and collect data and submit reports to the state. Supposing that one billion dollars is allocated to get the system up and running in the first year, that billion dollars will be reduced by eighty million dollars, leaving nine hundred twenty million available for use in the intended purpose of the legislation. There are various levels of compensation, but I'll just use the $10,000 figure that is available for the able bodied, able minded students of our state. That divides out to ninety-two thousand students getting a piece of the pie. We have roughly five and a half million students at present attending school in the grades between Kindergarten and Twelfth grade. That works out to about 1.67% getting the pie. The other 98.33% get the standard good or bad public school education.
The second thing that stuck out is that a student could be registered in a pre-Kindergarten class for the eligibility year and then be eligible, if accepted, all the way through twelfth grade. I saw nothing in the bill where the monies would be spread over all of the grades in the first year of the program. In theory, the majority of the students could be young enough to fill the quota for a decade unless the state increases funding each year. What I'm trying to say is the second year acceptance will be a number dramatically lower than the initial ninety-two thousand students.
So, whatever funding number the folks in congress come up with as a starting point will have to be increased six to seven fold, plus something for inflation, even if they devise a system that evens out the ages of the students being accepted into the program so that the same number accepted each year will be offset by students graduating and exiting the program. Where is all of this money coming from? I expect that a great part of it will come from the state shoving a greater portion of expense to the school districts. If that happens, the smaller school districts that have a low population and not much in the way of a tax base will be forced to make some hard decisions between bad options and impossible options. Hopefully, the House will have better foresight than the Senate and either kill the bill or fix it so that our small school districts are not killed in the process of enabling a few families to have school choice. Very few families....

legiscan.com
Texas SB2 | 2025-2026 | 89th Legislature
Bill Text (2025-02-06) Relating to the establishment of an education savings account program. [Received from the Senate]

[Bucknaked]

How can this help people that aren’t wealthy?

They will not answer this!

[Kevin]

Jesuit Dallas

Do you know of any for profit private schools? I'm not aware of any, but maybe there are a few. All the ones I know of are non-profits, and they're not raking in huge profits.

More demand for private schools will help some of them expand their capacity, and that could help tuition come down a little or at least increase less over time, as they can spread fixed costs out across a larger student base.

[Shane]

Jesuit Dallas

Wow. They making some profits in that one fo sho!

[60 Deluxe]

Some of the non-profits appear to be making a profit. I sit on the board of a parochial school. Our expenses are roughly four times what we receive in tuition and fees. If it were not for some generous people in our church, the school would not exist. Even with the generous donations, we have been running about $200K in the hole for the past three years. It is tough times for us. I don't see the school choice bill helping us much at all.

[RiverRat1]

How can this help people that aren’t wealthy?

Why does everything have to help the poor? Why can't the system reward people who work.

Here are costs of tuition for Texas private schools. You don't have to be rich to send your kid/s there. Just have a job and not be dumb with money.

https://www.privateschoolreview.com/tuition-stats/texas

[gemini2759]

Very informative breakdown by 60dekuxe. Thank you.