SAN ANTONIO — Opponents of Senate Bill 1 wonder when public school funding and teacher pay raises will be prioritized. Meanwhile, the school voucher legislation heads to the House for consideration after the Texas Senator approved the bill Thursday night.
Gov. Greg Abbott has prioritized the passage of SB 1 during the third special legislative session. The bill would allocate $500 million over two years to provide families the opportunity to pay for their children to attend private school.
The bill proposes to create an education savings accounts of up to $8,000 per student.
The legislation has faced backlash among Democrats and Republicans in rural Texas.
Supporters praise the bill as an expansion of educational freedom for parents while opponents see it differently.
“Unfortunately, this bill has been characterized as an anti-public school bill, which is not accurate is it,” asked Republican State Sen. Bob Hall on Thursday before the vote.
Republican State Sen. Brandon Creighton responded: “That’s not accurate at all.”
“You start tearing down the public school system, it’s not just about the educational process, you’re talking about communities, Senator Creighton,” said Democratic State Sen. Borris Miles.
Critics of SB 1 believe the legislation would lead to crippling the public education system and lead to several dire consequences.
“Public dollars are for public education, public schools,” said Wanda Longoria, president of the Northside American Federation of Teachers. “Public schools are a cornerstone of our democracy and if that goes away, now what you’re doing is leaving schools underfunded, you’re leaving public schools to deal with the marginalized students.”
The San Antonio Alliance workers union is also among the opposing parties to SB 1 and an advocate of proper funding for teachers and public schools. Abbott noted the passage of SB 1 in both chambers could lead to adding public school funding and teacher pay to the special session agenda.
“What we see is a tradeoff, what we see is an attempt to buy off Texas educators and Texas families and Texas school districts and what we know is that there’s no price tag worthy of having vouchers in our state, deteriorate public education across this state,” said Adrian Reyna, San Antonio Alliance executive vice president.
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