ESAs are praised by some as a means to allow Texas parents the opportunity to choose the best education for their children. | Canva
ESAs are praised by some as a means to allow Texas parents the opportunity to choose the best education for their children. | Canva
The Texas Public Policy Foundation recently gave a round of applause to Sen. Brandon Creighton's Bill 8 after it advanced out of the Senate Education Committee, calling it a crucial piece of education legislation.
The measure sponsored by Creighton (R-Conroe) is a parental rights bill that would create an Education Savings Account (ESA) program in Texas to give parents more control in their kids' education, TPPF said.
“Parents deserve to have all of the necessary tools to ensure their child has access to a quality education that works best for them,” TPPF CEO Greg Sindelar said in the March 28 release. “Senate Bill 8 is an important step towards empowering all Texas parents, and we applaud the Senate Education Committee and Chairman Creighton for making parents a priority.”
Yet the bill is not without a measure of controversy with opponents seeing ESAs as potentially harmful to public schools.
According to the bill text, students could receive up to $8,000 in ESA funding, which would be overseen by the Comptroller of Public Accounts in Texas. The bill includes provisions to protect smaller school districts from losing enrollment and mandates that no teaching on gender identity is allowed.
Additionally, parents must be kept apprised of any changes to their child's mental, emotional or physical health. TPPF said Creighton's bill would give 5.4 million Texas parents more control over their children's education.
Mandy Drogin, campaign director for TPPF's Next Generation Initiative, told the Austin Journal, that ESAs are "about the freedom for every single parent, including those in rural communities, to have the option to send their child to whatever school they need. [Parents] feel like no one is listening because the system is set up not to listen to parents. And that is all across Texas, including rural areas.”
According to a release by the Parent Empowerment Coalition, "Universal parental choice means giving every parent access to the learning environment that best serves their children. All parents should have the widest possible choices – be it traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools or homeschool."
Furthermore, the coalition said that ESAs can be beneficial as they "improve proficiency and education attainment" according to studies conducted over the past 25 years. The coalition calls ESAs "digital wallets" for parents to use to customize their child's education.
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