Texas House committee holds hearing on school choice bill as becomes top legislative priority
AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) -- School choice may be the main issue of the 89th Texas legislative session. In Tuesday's House Education Committee hearing, the passion for and against the measure was obvious in the packed room and on the dais.
"It's not so much school choice as it is the school's choice. Is that correct?" State Representative James Talarico (D-Georgetown) asked the committee's Republican Chair Brad Buckley.
Buckey responded, "Not at all because this opens all sorts of pathways for parents. When a parent is directing the process, that's the difference."
Talarico repeatedly returned to the idea of "choice."
"To try to use parental choice or parental freedom as a guise for this program," he said, "I think is an insult to the good people on this committee to empower parents."
The billion-dollar plan would send up to $10,000 per student of public money to education savings accounts for those attending private schools. Homeschoolers would get $2,000. The Senate has already passed a similar version of the legislation as they did several times during the last session.
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The House has never passed a school choice bill.
Governor Greg Abbott, who has named the issue an emergency item and listed it atop his legislative priorities, spoke at a rally today urging supporters to go to the Capitol and meet with lawmakers both for and against the measure.
"We have been down this pathway before but have never been so close to getting this passed," Abbott told the crowd at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's "Parent Empowerment Day" event. "There is no reason anyone would have to resort to a lie if they could win on the facts. The fact of the matter is, those who are against school choice must resort to lies because the facts don't support them."
As the House begins its debate, it now has a speaker in Lubbock, Republican Dustin Burrows, who supports the measure and wants a full vote on the floor.
"Competition does make everything stronger and better and this will not only help parents," Burrows said. "It will make public education stronger because of competition."
State Representative Jeff Leach, a Republican from Allen whose children attend public schools, echoed the sentiment in the committee hearing.
"Why is true choice, and freedom, and competition something that we are afraid of?" he asked his colleagues.
Those against it, like Democrat State Representative Harold Dutton of Houston, say it's not about competition or freedom.
"I think the voucher thing makes us admit that we don't know how to fix public schools," Dutton said. "That's what it is."
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