SAN ANTONIO — Gov. Greg Abbott has added private school vouchers to his proposed Parental Bill of Rights, saying it is parents who know which school is the best fit for their child.

Monday night’s announcement, at a San Antonio campaign rally, came as Texas conservatives celebrated a wave of victories in school board races Saturday night from Keller to Dripping Springs to Fort Bend. Abbott was joined for his announcement by Rep. John Lujan, a Republican who won a special election in a traditionally Democratic House district in southeast San Antonio last November.

“No governor has devoted more resources to public education than I have,” Abbott said. “In 2019, we increased public education funding by more than $5 billion per biennium and, in 2021, we added even more.”

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Greg Abbott has backed private school vouchers as part of his Parental Bill of Rights

  • Private school vouchers have been a flash point during last legislative sessions

  • Right now, 27 voucher programs exist in 16 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Education Commission of the States

  • Abbott argues that parents are the best judge of where their children should go to school

That Abbott opened his argument for vouchers with the idea Texas has put plenty of money into public education is intentional. Advocates for traditional public schools have argued that vouchers, and even charter schools, take money out of the traditional public education system, one student at a time.

Beto O’Rourke, Abbott’s Democratic opponent in November, made that funding argument on Twitter Monday night.

“Abbott is already underfunding our classrooms by $4,000 per student,” O’Rourke posted on Twitter. “The last thing we need is to have him take our tax dollars out of our kids’ schools and send them away to private schools.”

Traditional public school advocates also argue private school vouchers lack accountability.

“Vouchers are taxpayer-funded government subsidies for private schools and vendors with no accountability for results,” Raise Your Hand Texas wrote in its legislative priorities last session. “Vouchers reduce equitable access to educational opportunity, weaken rights for students with disabilities and expose taxpayers to fraud.”

Abbott sees no conflict in funding both traditional public schools and vouchers that would allow money to follow the child to private schools. “Urban, suburban, rural — if you like the public school your child is attending, it will be fully funded,” Abbott said.

The Texas legislature enters the upcoming 2023 legislative session with more money on hand than it ever has. Current estimates are that lawmakers will have $12 billion available in excess general revenue, another $12 billion in the state savings account known as a Rainy Day Fund and a final $3 billion in federal COVID funds that have yet to be spent.

That’s $27 billion in available funding for a Republican-dominated legislature going into the next session, a total that may increase with an additional revenue estimate expected from Comptroller Glenn over the summer.

The fight over school vouchers is one of the high-profile battles in the Texas legislature, with Democrats picking up moderate Republicans to defeat prior proposals. The last major fight over private school vouchers was during the 2017 legislative session.

Abbott’s Parental Bill of Rights states that “parents should remain the primary decision makers in their child’s education by allowing them to choose the best school for their child, provide transparency on curriculum and instructional materials, and protect students.”