🔴Relating to the establishment of an education savings account program

🔴 SB 2: Private School Accounts Funded by Public Dollars

What it says it does:
SB 2 creates Education Savings Accounts so parents can use public money for private tuition, tutoring, and homeschool costs. It is presented as a way to expand educational freedom and let families decide how to spend their child’s state funding.

What it actually changes:
The bill moves one billion dollars from the state general fund into a new ESA account controlled by the Comptroller. Up to five private Certified Educational Assistance Organizations will manage the money and approve expenses. Together, they can keep up to eight percent of all appropriations, with five percent going to the private managers and three percent to the Comptroller’s office. That means about eighty million dollars in administrative carveouts right away. Fiscal projections show the program expanding to almost five billion dollars per year by 2030, which would raise that annual carveout to roughly four hundred million.

Who is pushing for it:
Support came from groups such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation, EdChoice, the American Federation for Children, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, Texas Values, and the Texas Private Schools Association. Each stands to benefit from state-funded growth of private education markets or from promoting the school choice agenda.

Who benefits:
Private schools gain guaranteed tuition streams paid with taxpayer dollars. Homeschool vendors and educational technology companies receive new state-backed business. The Comptroller and the five private organizations gain a continuing cut of all funds, a structure that grows with every future appropriation.

Who gets left out or exposed:
Public schools lose student-based funding, especially in rural districts that have no private options. Teachers and local boards lose control over how state money is spent. Students with disabilities risk losing rights guaranteed in public schools once they move to ESA programs that have weaker oversight.

Why this matters long term:
SB 2 establishes a permanent funding pipeline outside traditional school finance laws. It ties billions in future obligations to private accounts that are not fully transparent or publicly accountable. Once the income limits expire in 2027, wealthy families can join the program, expanding costs even further while diverting funds away from local classrooms.

What to watch next:
The initial one billion dollar cap expires after the first biennium. Fiscal notes show the cost reaching nearly five billion within three years. Unless lawmakers add strict caps or auditing requirements, the program will automatically consume a larger share of general revenue each budget cycle.

Bottom line:
SB 2 promises choice but delivers privatization. It pulls one billion dollars out of public education now, allows eighty million in overhead for administrators, and builds a system that could cost Texans five billion a year before the decade ends.

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