Texas educators push for funding and accountability

DALLAS – KERA reports that Education Savings Accounts were a top focus for Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2023 session and four special sessions. But the voucher-like program failed, as did additional funding for public schools statewide after Abbott vowed to withhold his signature from any education bill that lacked ESAs. Now, with the next session just weeks away, Abbott is once again making ESAs a top focus of the session — and he’s confident lawmakers will pass a bill that’ll send public dollars to private schools. “We are ensuring,” Abbott said at a recent visit to the private, religious Kingdom Life Academy in Tyler, “that students who may have fallen through the cracks in their public school, they’re going to have a new chance, a new opportunity to be able to, to learn, to achieve, to succeed.” With assurances he’ll soon get some kind of voucher plan, Abbott is also again backing teacher pay hikes as he did last session — and districts around the state are desperate for funding.

After opposing vouchers last session, Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde said that fight is over. “The primary thing we are focused on right now this session [is] different from last session,” she said. “Some people will criticize us for it, but I’m not going to relive Groundhog Day.” She admits it’s a lesson learned the hard way after the last legislative session. Elizalde said her district — the second-largest in the state — is facing a $186 million shortfall. “I certainly hope that as leaders of learning organizations, we’re learners first,” she said. “And we learned that right now our priority must be getting school funding.” Small, rural districts are largely saying the same, especially with several new Abbott-backed legislators in office who say they’ll approve some voucher plan. Randy Willis, who leads the Texas Association of Rural Schools, said teacher pay is a priority for his several hundred members, whose teachers make $35,000 or $36,000 a year. He said urban educators earn at least $20,000 more.