The School Voucher Fight in Texas: What’s at Stake with SB2

In this relaunch episode of the Austin DSA Batcast, we’re covering the school voucher fight in Texas. We’ll discuss the history of the school voucher agenda, what happens when vouchers are implemented, where we are now, and Austin DSA’s Schools for All campaign’s role in the fight.

The Austin DSA Batcast is produced entirely by volunteer members of the Austin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Our previous two episodes from 2022 can be found here. Stay tuned for future episodes where we take a closer look at the issues relevant to Austin DSA’s campaign work!

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SHOW NOTES

• Gov. Abbott has been holding public school funding hostage in exchange for the passage of his voucher legislation.

• Abbott failed to get anything passed in both Texas’ previous legislative session and an additional 4 special sessions.

• Over a dozen anti-voucher Republican seats were replaced with pro-voucher congresspersons this last election, along with some Democratic seats that were crucial in the opposition effort in the House.

• In 2023, Abbott vetoed at least a dozen other bills, claiming they could wait until “after education freedom gets passed.”

• The genesis of voucher programs is openly rooted in the response to Brown v. Board of Education.

• Schools are primarily funded at the state and local level. The Department of Education has historically only ever provided ~10% of the funding schools use. The rest is handled at the city and state levels.

• Arizona’s school voucher program (Empowerment Scholarship Account) became a huge financial burden on the state, and has primarily been utilized by the state’s wealthiest families.

• In Illinois, 1 in 5 schools enrolled in the state’s voucher program have anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

• The majority of schools in Illinois’ Invest in Kids program are Catholic schools, and four of six Catholic dioceses in Illinois have policies that say schools may refuse to accommodate students with disabilities.