$10,500 per student: Greg Abbott’s plan to revolutionize education in Texas
Here’s an explainer on the Trump-approved plan to flip the script on schooling in Texas.
During an address to conservative activists in Austin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he plans to implement a private school voucher-style program across Texas, with the program designed to make the state become “No. 1 for educating our kids.”
Until now, Abbot’s idea of school vouchers has been met with firm shakes of the head at the Texas House of Representatives. That was until recently, when Speaker Dustin Burrows said that he was set to pass “school choice” legislation after Donald Trump made public his thoughts on the idea, saying he would be “watching them closely."
The plan has been both criticised and lauded. On one hand, those in favour say the voucher-style program would increase parental choice in schooling decisions that would boost academic performance, while critics trust it will only serve to siphon money into to less-regulated schools, some of which are run by political allies of the governor.
Trump gives @DanPatrick & @CreightonForTX a shoutout for passing the Senate’s education savings account bill this week, and adds: “The Texas House must now pass School Choice to deliver a gigantic Victory for Texas students and parents. I will be watching them closely.” #txlege pic.twitter.com/mAaRqW00RZ
— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) February 8, 2025
A report from The Dallas Morning News said that at the conference, Abbott “spoke for about a half-hour about his proposed schooling reforms”, emphasising that “the future of our state is going to be hinged in a meaningful way to what we do in this state and educating the next generation of Texans.”
“It’s time we set our sights on a new No. 1 standard — Texas must be No. 1 for educating our kids“, he added, “and school choice is a path to achieving that goal.”
Abbott hit the parents in the crowd with an emotional cry over how his plan would combat bullying: “If you’re a working mom, doing your best to put food on the table and pay the bills, maybe working two jobs, knowing that your child at school is being bullied relentlessly. School choice gives that mom the option to choose a better, safer pathway for her child.”
How would the Texas school voucher plan work?
The legislation, if passed, would take $1 billion from the state’s surplus to build educational savings accounts. Students could then apply for the program and receive up to $10,000 for private school expenses, or $2,000 for homeschool expenses. There was no mention of non-private schools receiving any money from this proposal.
State Representative Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, was a loud critic of the idea, labelling it a “voucher scam” and saying that the program was a way of diverting money away from neighborhood schools.
“No child should be trapped in a school that fails to meet their needs just because they live in TX & the Governor is holding their education dollars hostage to deliver a voucher scam to his billionaire donors. Fully fund our neighborhood schools. No more gimmicks. No more scams", she wrote on social media.
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