Voucher bills want to prioritize low-income families and be open to all students. Those goals might be at odds.

Education policy experts and public education advocates worry that creating a school voucher program with broad eligibility, as proposed by the Texas House and Senate's priority bills, will fall short of their promises to prioritize low-income students. (Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)

---

In public hearings, during Capitol floor debates and in rooms packed with their constituents, Texas lawmakers have pitched school vouchers as a tool that will primarily benefit low-income students — and not just, as their critics argue, offer taxpayer dollars to families already sending their children to private schools.