Check the numbers: Website tells how much Texas schools will lose if voucher bill passes
The 89th Texas legislative session began Jan. 14, and one of the most contentious bills under consideration is one that would establish an education savings account — commonly referred to as a voucher program — giving $10,000 per student to families to use toward homeschooling costs or private school tuition each year.
The bill passed in the Senate on Feb. 5 and is now being debated in the House of Representatives. It’s also being debated among parents, those who believe the program will give families more autonomy in their children’s education and those who believe it will negatively impact funding for a public school system that is already financially strapped.
Recently, a Facebook group for Keller parents shared a link to a website sponsored by the Texas House Democratic Caucus, dontdefundmyschool.com, which purports to show exactly how much money public schools stand to lose should the education savings account bill pass.
According to the site, the Keller school district could lose up to $13.6 million. The Fort Worth school district, with more than twice as many students as Keller, could lose up to $29.1 million based on the website’s calculations. But how accurate are these numbers?
The site pulls from data published by Every Texan, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to social justice and public policy action. Jaime Puente, director of economic opportunity at Every Texan, used district and charter school enrollment numbers as well as weighted average daily attendance figures from the Texas Education Agency to compile that data. He then considered a 1%, 3% and 5% voucher acceptance rate, meaning the number of students who would leave public school in favor of a private or home-school education if provided money to do so.
If 1% of its students accepted vouchers and left, Fort Worth would lose approximately $5.8 million. At a 3% departure rate, that number rises to roughly $17.5 million, and it balloons to more than $29 million if 5% of students leave.
That’s based on figures showing the average per-pupil funding amount across Texas to be $8,200 for independent school districts and $7,300 for charter schools. For context, Texas schools receive $6,160 per pupil based on average daily attendance, but that number increases with additional money for services like special education and bilingual education.
The website doesn’t take into consideration the direct impact of the $10,000 payments on the Texas public education budget, nor does it consider the impact of that money going to families whose children already attend private schools.
The fact that the Texas House Democratic Caucus, which strongly opposes the voucher bill, is behind dontdefundmyschool.com might lead some to suspect the site paints a biased picture. Every Texan, however, stands behind its data, which the Democrats’ site pulls from, stating the group operates independently of party politics.
Every Texan takes its numbers from public data from the Texas Education Agency. A quick search of the TEA’s reports verifies the enrollment figures for Fort Worth used in the calculations on dontdefundmyschool.com. A representative from the TEA, however, said the per-pupil funding amount used by Every Texan is actually less than what Texas students receive. When you consider all funding from the state, district and federal levels, the TEA says per-pupil spending averages $15,500. This number was presented in the agency’s last annual report, which relied on data from the 2022-23 school year. Given that, it’s possible the Every Texan’s numbers downplay the financial impact of the education savings account program.
The Star-Telegram contacted all six state representatives from Fort Worth for comment: Republicans Mike Olcott, Nate Schatzline, John McQueeney and Charlie Geren and Democrats Ramon Romero and Nicole Collier.
Only Romero and Schatzline responded.
Speaking to the Star-Telegram by phone, Romero, who opposes the education savings account bill, urged Texans to call their representatives and make their voices heard now before the bill reaches the House floor, which could be anywhere from two weeks to a month away.
“If you haven’t gone to www.dontdefundmyschool.com, you should go right now and take a look at what your independent school district is going to lose,” he added.
Romero said the $10,000 per-student payments would further erode education spending in Texas, which ranks in the bottom 10 among U.S. states in public school funding.
In an emailed statement, Schatzline downplayed the impact of vouchers on district funding. “It’s important to clarify that public school funding is based on student enrollment, meaning that if a student leaves a district for another educational option, the funding follows that student — just as it would if they moved to a different district. The figures presented on the site may not account for that reality and could be designed to stoke fear rather than present a balanced perspective.”
Schatzline then defended his support of the voucher bill: “Families deserve the ability to choose the best education for their children, and competition encourages public schools to improve, innovate and better serve their students,” he said. “If a school is losing enrollment, the focus should be on improving outcomes rather than maintaining a monopoly on education dollars.”