After hours of intense debate on Thursday, the Texas House Public Education Committee passed altered versions of its marquee education legislation this session: a bill to add $7.7 billion in new funds for the public school system and a $1 billion bill for a private school voucher program.
Most Democrats on the GOP-controlled committee voted in favor of House Bill 2, the school funding bill, while acknowledging it still came up short for public schools that are in dire financial straits and shuttering campuses across the state. Democrats focused much of their ire on the voucher bill, which as expected, was passed out of committee on a party-line vote.
“We said this was a historic funding bill but our schools are in a historic hole, and this bill does not even catch us up to 2019 funding levels,” said state Representative James Talarico, an Austin Democrat, adding that he did not want to “overpromise” what HB 2 would do. On top of that, he said, “now we’re considering a bill that’s going to send a billion dollars in the first year and perhaps $7 billion in the second biennium to kids who are in private school.”
