Gov. Greg Abbott, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa discuss school choice bill

AUSTIN, Texas - As education savings accounts wait for their day on the Texas House floor, the debate over the bill is still ongoing.

Gov. Greg Abbott and state Rep. Gina Hinojosa joined FOX 7 Austin to discuss school vouchers ahead of a full Texas House vote.

Gov. Abbott on school choice and the legislative session

FOX7's Rudy Koski: The House is serving up somewhat of a blended plan between their plan and the Senate's plan on school choice includes cost caps, makes kids with disabilities and lower incomes a priority. Are you happy with how things are playing out right now?

Gov. Greg Abbott: As you know, this is the first time in Texas history where the Texas House Committee in Public Education voted out a school choice plan. It's going to hit the House floor next week, and it's going to pass the Texas House of Representatives for the first time in Texas history. And there's a reason why. And that's because Texans across the state, whether you're black, white, Hispanic or Asian, whether you're urban, suburban or rural Texan, everybody in Texas says they want school choice. But know this. And that is, we can have school choice while at the same time fully funding education, giving our public school teachers an all-time record high and pay raises to make sure we're going to have the best public schools. We're going to have school choice options. And finally, we will be putting Texans on the pathway to be ranked number one in the United States for educating our kids.

Koski: Let's talk about that education funding bill, HB2. You have noted in several recent social media postings that the increase, and you just said it's historic, pushing funding well over $15,000 per student. But critics claim that amount incorporates a lot of other funding sources: maintenance, salaries, things like that. You know, the basic allotment in this for students, the state is closer to, you know, $6,100 per student. So why not just end this dispute and just add a lot more money to HB2?

Abbott: The fact of the matter is we're providing a record amount of funding per student. The basic allotment that you're talking about, all that does is confuse the public, so the public can understand the basic allotment is a small percentage of the overall funding that goes to funding education. 

The total amount that goes to schools is more like about $15 or $16,000. One reason why we don't put too much money in the basic allotment is because administrators use that to grow administration. 

If you look at what's happened over the past decade, most of the expansion of spending in education has gone to administration. We need to cut administration. We need to fund what matters the most in education, and that is teachers. And we are going to fund the strategies that will increase pay to teachers so that we can attract the best educators in the country and then provide a great curriculum and provide a choice. And those three things combined will put Texas on the pathway to ranking number one and educating our kids.

Koski: Governor, as it reads right now, this is a program, school choice, if approved, will have to be reauthorized in the next session. If I read it right, it reminds me of the be on time college loan program that has been limited in the past by budget restraints. Are you worried that a possible recession could make school choice a one-and-done idea?

Abbott: It's not going to be reauthorized. It is subject to having to be funded every session. That's the way the Texas budget works. 

Every item that we have in the entire budget has to be funded every session. We're prohibited, to funding things into the future, unless that is done by constitutional amendment. But what we expect to happen is, we're going to provide the funding this session for about 100,000 students. And when that happens, two things will arise after that. 

One, there's going to be parents of 100,000 students who will enjoy this, and they will demand that be done. The other thing that's going to happen is that all these naysayers, all these critics, they're going to realize that all of the false narratives they try to create about school choice turned out not to be true and the devil behind the curtain about school choice simply does not exist. That school choice actually helps public schools do better. And as a result, everybody in the state is going to be in favor of continuing our strong support for public schools as well as supporting school choice.

Koski: In the last session, teacher pay and school funding were held up in order to force a vote on school choice. As we all know, that strategy just didn't work. Would you rather see the order flip-flop this time in the upcoming House debate and have lawmakers vote first on teacher pay funding, then school choice in order to avoid some type of meltdown?

Abbott: The fact of the matter is, the votes are there where we don't choose one or the other. If you go back to my state of the state address, I made two things that priority priorities as a concern to education. 

One was school choice. The other was teacher pay raises. 

As governor, I expect to achieve every emergency item out of my list. And my state of the state address. As a result, I know that there are enough votes in both the Texas Senate and Texas House to get to my desk, an all-time record amount of pay for our teachers that we want to provide the best teacher pay raise to, at the same time ensuring we're going to pay for school choice. We're going to have the best public schools, highly funded public schools, the best paid teachers, and the ability for parents to choose the education pathway that is best for their child.

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa

FOX7's Rebecca Thomas: So you just heard Gov. Abbott say that you can have both school choice and a fully funded public education system. What is your take on that?

Rep. Gina Hinojosa: Well, I'll say in the reality of what we're looking at today, we are coming nowhere close to fully funding our schools. 

The governor, the speaker, the lieutenant governor like to throw out the term "fully funded." But let's talk about what that really means. 

In Texas, we need another…$4,000 per student just to national average in first year in funding. Just to reach 2019 spending levels because of inflation. 

We need to increase the basic allotment or per student funding by $1,340. This equates to about $18 billion. The proposal before us today is about $8 billion, so a full $10 billion shy of what we'd need just to keep up with inflation. 

When you put a voucher in that budget, then you blow up school funding in perpetuity. And so no, we are not fully funding schools. In fact, we are doing more harm than good.

Thomas: Democrats have said that this would be taking public funds away from school, public schools. You know, Arizona passed something similar when it comes to school choice. And what has come of that?

Hinojosa: Well, so Arizona has blown up their budget, because what this universal school choice is, is it means that every student currently in private school is eligible to have between $12,000 and $30,000 of their tuition covered now by the taxpayers.

 We can't afford that. We aren't even investing properly in our neighborhood public schools. We should not put the taxpayer on the hook for covering the private school tuition of every single student in private school in Texas. It's outrageous. And the only reason? Because when things don't make sense at the Capitol, you follow the money. 

The only reason the governor is pushing this is because he received the largest campaign contribution in all of Texas history by an out-of-state billionaire by the name of Jeff Yass. And that is why taxpayer-funded vouchers are a priority this legislative session. And last. It's not about students. It's not about achievement. It's not about Texas taxpayers. It is about making his number one donor happy.

Thomas: And I do want to point out not all Republicans have been on board with the school choice, particularly those who live in rural areas and really don't have access to private schools. And they are concerned about funding for their public schools. So, is there any middle ground? Is there any room for compromise?

Hinojosa: Well, there is conversation about just letting Texans vote. 

You know, Texas public schools are so much a part of who we are as Texans. They are enshrined in our Texas Constitution. 

If we're going to make such a big change to the way we educate our students, we should ask the voters what they think. 

States all over this country have given that opportunity to the voters, and we don't see why Texas voters shouldn't have the same say when it comes to their students' education.

Thomas: I want to bring it home to Austin because some schools are really in trouble, like Dobie Middle School. They've received poor ratings. Some parents believe that public schools don't meet their child's needs. 

So should these children be stuck? If they can't afford to go to private school or, you know, homeschool? 

What other options are out there without school choice?

Hinojosa: Your neighborhood public school is the only option that is a right of every Texas school child. And so, if those schools aren't meeting the needs of our students, then we need to make sure that they are, because this term school choice is really the school's choice. 

This bill gives no child a right to a private school education. Again, the only right any child will have, with or without the taxpayer-funded voucher bill becoming law will be their neighborhood public school. And so we should ensure that every child receives a quality education in their neighborhood public school.

Thomas: If your party was in charge, how would you run Texas public education differently?

Hinojosa: We would prioritize our neighborhood public schools. We would listen to parents and teachers who say the number one priority they have is to make sure we have a good teacher in the classroom. That's the best thing that we can do for our students is putting a qualified teacher in the classroom. 

We are in a crisis. There's a teacher exodus happening in Texas. 

My son didn't get a fifth grade teacher a few years ago in Austin ISD, but this is happening all over the state. 

We now have more teachers, new teachers in Texas who are not certified. And that is because we are not paying teachers their worth. The governor likes to pay teachers lip service, but has yet to put on the table money to pay them their actual worth.

School choice bill

What we know:

Senate Bill 2, which would establish education savings accounts allowing the use of public funds to pay for private schools, advanced out of the House committee on April 3.

It’s currently awaiting a debate on the full Texas House floor.

The bill advanced on what is called a committee substitute, which means it also contains language from the House bill as well.

There are mostly cosmetic differences between the two versions, but ultimately the bill would allow students to attend private school with public funds.

Republicans say this is a way to provide more choices for parents.

Democrats push back, saying there is already choice and there should be a greater focus on making public schools better.

What they're saying:

The Democrats held a news conference before the committee vote last week and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters that he is confident vouchers will pass – something that didn't happen last session.

"This bill increases the demands on the taxpayer because they have to fund a whole new lane of schools. And in fact, we are saying that after this next year cap expires, we could be on the hook for the private school tuition of every child currently in private school," said Hinojosa.

"I have confidence in Speaker Burrows. We are singing from the same songbook. During these eight to nine weeks, the execution has to take place in the house," Patrick said. "There's a new sheriff in town, over there. And that's why I'm optimistic. I'm a little concerned about the clock ticking, but I'm optimistic the new sheriff is going to do what he said he'd do."

One change in the House version of the bill says if a voucher student returns to public school, that school will get 10% of the student's education savings account funding.

The bill caps the spending for the first two years of the program at $1 billion.

The school choice plan also has a section that restricts access to funding only to U.S. citizens or to people lawfully in the country. 

Despite building in priorities for low-income households and disabled students, opponents argue, the majority of children won't qualify.

What's next:

The bill will head to the House floor for a full debate and vote.

If it passes the House, it will then go to Abbott's desk.

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