TEXAS, USA — The heads of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, otherwise known as the NAACP, and the Texas Black Legislative Caucus were in Texas Friday to condemn the state's school choice bill.
The bill will give parents taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools.
“It further exacerbates the haves and the have-nots," said Rep. Ron Reynolds.
It's one step closer to becoming law after the Texas Senate approved it Thursday, but the bill would likely face a tough fight in the Texas House.
Democrats and rural Republicans in the House opposed it during the regular session, but now Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is promising to add teacher pay and public school funding to the special session agenda if lawmakers pass vouchers.
The heads of the NAACP and the Texas Black Legislative Caucus want Texans to urge their state lawmakers to oppose the bill.
“It’s not about race. This is bad public policy," said NAACP's Derrick Johnson. “This is enriching our future only to enrich a few on the back of everyone else.”
Houston educators have also slammed the bill.
“They will take money away from our neighborhood public schools," said Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.
Opponents of the bill said most counties in Texas don't have private schools, and there's no accountability for the ones getting public dollars.
Republican Senator Brandon Creighton of Conroe believes the market will take care of that.
“If that private school is underperforming beyond those expectations, there will be an exodus," Creighton said.
He said his Senate Bill 1 lets parents choose a school that best fits their child’s needs by putting $8,000 per student into an education savings account.
Creighton said that money could potentially cover private school tuition and other expenses for more than 60,000 students. That’s roughly 1% of all students in Texas.
The program would start the next school year if passed.
“This isn’t a voucher," Creighton said. "These funds do not go directly to the family. The funds would go directly to an approved provider.”
University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus says Gov. Abbott’s carrot-and-stick approach likely won’t be enough to pass the bill.
“It’s gonna take a lot of time for the parties to get together on this because there’s such divide in terms of exactly how the funding’s going to go, what the accountability mechanism is going to be, and then specifically which members might have to be flipped," Rottinghaus said.
This issue was the key reason Gov. Abbott called this special session.
The Texas House meets again Monday afternoon.