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With diminished power to block school vouchers this legislative session, Texas Democrats sought Tuesday to frame public discussion on the contentious issue around one question: Should the state allow wealthy Texans to pay for their children’s private education using taxpayer dollars?
Lawmakers sparred over that question during a tense, highly attended public hearing on House Bill 3, one of the two main proposals seeking to create a school voucher program, a top priority for Texas’ Republican leadership.
The House’s voucher plan would allocate $1 billion toward education savings accounts that some families could use for private school tuition and other educational expenses, like textbooks, transportation and therapy. Under the proposal, most participating students would receive roughly $10,893 every year, an amount equal to 85% of what public schools get for each student through state and local funding, with additional money set aside for students with disabilities and home-schoolers.
Any child eligible to attend a public school could apply to the program. So could those enrolled in a public school’s pre-K program and families with children attending private schools.
Supporters have long pitched vouchers as a tool that will primarily benefit low-income students — and not just, as their critics argue and research in other states shows, channel taxpayer dollars to families already paying for their kids’ private education.
Tuesday presented the first opportunity this session for lawmakers in the House, where efforts to establish a voucher program repeatedly failed two years ago, to hear testimony from education experts and the public on the latest proposal.
“My intent is to provide families with the opportunity to choose the best possible educational setting for their child,” said Republican Rep. Brad Buckley of Salado, the bill’s author and chair of the House Public Education Committee. “I believe House Bill 3 provides this choice while prioritizing Texas’ most high-needs and vulnerable students.”
The daylong hearing, with hundreds scheduled to testify late into the night, featured discussions about the segregation-era roots of vouchers; Democratic skepticism about the motivations of the late “school choice” advocate Milton Friedman; Republican criticism of a national voucher expert and critic who cited a decade of research showing unfavorable academic results in such programs; and pleas to pour more resources into public education. Private school students and officials, meanwhile, raved about the opportunity the legislation hopes to provide them.
“Families should not have to pay twice — once in taxes for a system that may not meet their child’s needs, and again, for tuition, for the education they truly want,” said Brian Archer, an administrator for Joshua Christian Academy, located near Fort Worth. “HB 3 empowers parents, not the government, to make the best decision for their child’s education.”
But by investing state dollars in private schools, others said, Texas officials would leave public schools to operate with fewer resources and reduced funding. Legislative budget experts recently predicted that public schools, which receive money based on attendance, may lose dollars if kids leave to participate in the state’s voucher program.
“It would be stealing public funds from the award-winning pre-K my own son currently attends,” said Luisa White, a public school educator in Corpus Christi. “It would be stealing public funds from the elementary school where my little boy will begin kindergarten next year, and it would be stealing public funds from the high school I currently serve.”
Democrats spent hours interrogating what they see as contradictions and weaknesses in the legislation, focusing heavily on the evidence available from other states that have implemented large-scale voucher programs.
Studies have shown little evidence that vouchers lead to improved test scores for low-income students, with some of the most negative academic outcomes occurring as vouchers have expanded in the last decade. The bills do not impose any admission or enrollment requirements on the private schools that choose to participate in the program, meaning they would face no state pressure to adjust their costs, ensure more racial and ethnic diversity or accept students from different faith traditions.
While the measure seeks to prioritize students with disabilities and those it defines as “low income,” the bill does not say what would happen to children who make it through the eligibility process and cannot find a private school in Texas to accommodate their needs. However, lawmakers who support the measure have said those students would not participate in the program.
That has concerned public education advocates, who have underscored the potential impact on kids needing special education services. Unlike public schools, private schools do not have to follow federal laws seeking to ensure those students receive adequate evaluations and educational services.
“They rely on the wraparound services our public schools provide — mental health support, special education interventions, transportation, meals and a team of educators fighting for their success,” said Tania Tasneem, a teacher of 18 years who testified about the academic success of a student with a disability she worked closely with. “Diverting public funds through ESAs weakens the very system that held her up.”
But the most pressing topic of discussion Tuesday was access. Many of the students currently benefiting from voucher programs in other states had already attended private schools before signing up, meaning their families had previously committed to paying thousands of dollars in tuition without government assistance.
Democrats said Texas appears headed in the same direction.
Rep. James Talarico, the Austin Democrat helping lead the voucher opposition, criticized the bill for lacking provisions to ensure private schools accept students eligible for the program, as well as the argument that Texas does not need such accountability requirements because families will ultimately decide which private schools meet their needs.
“We are allowing the private school to have the ultimate power in this equation, and so I resent the effort to use parents as a shield for this push for privatization,” he said.
Democrats proposed several ideas they said could align the bill with Republicans’ stated goal of serving the neediest students. They said the legislation could place an income limit on the families who can participate, prohibit participating private schools from denying students based on their family’s inability to pay tuition or impose enrollment requirements. Better yet, they said, lawmakers could instead invest the money from the proposed voucher program to help cover Texas’ $2 billion special education funding gap.
“Do you think our taxpayer dollars should go to a family making over $500,000 a year, who are already sending their kids to private school?” Talarico asked Buckley. “Not a low-income family. We could have that conversation. Not even a working-class, middle-class family. We could have that conversation. But your bill allows for, literally, millionaires to take money that could go to public schools to subsidize their private school tuition.”
Buckley and his fellow Republicans swiftly rejected those criticisms.
“Every parent in Texas deserves the right to make one of the most important decisions that they have to do as a parent, to have that freedom to make a decision on … where their kids are educated,” Buckley said. “After four years of runaway inflation, there are families that earn $120,000-$150,000 a year, and you have four or five kids, it’s a struggle. It’s difficult for us to make those judgments. But I do know that I trust parents to make the best decision for their kids.”
Rep. Alan Schoolcraft, R-McQueeney, criticized what he called the “millionaires and billionaires argument,” saying many rich families also enroll their children in public schools and pay significant money in property taxes that benefit their local campuses.
“It seems awfully petty to me to spend all this time and effort worrying about this infinitesimal little group of people who are putting so much more into” public education, he said.
Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, said he loves public schools, which his children attend, but questioned why people are afraid of “true freedom, and choice and competition.”
“Right now, the fact is public schools have choices that parents don’t have. We have over 1,200 independent school districts in this state, each of whom the state has empowered to make certain decisions parents in those districts disagree with,” Leach said, using examples like districts that have decided to adopt four-day school weeks or not to participate in the state’s merit pay program for teachers.
“I hear this argument about this bill being all about billionaires, and millionaires and special interests. That’s not why I’m supporting this bill,” he added. “We can be friends and advocates, proudly so of our public schools, and also support the right, and the choice, and the freedom of Texas families to direct their kids’ education.”
Democrats and many people attending the hearing, who would often voice their frustrations quietly in the room, didn’t appear to support that argument.
Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said it was unfair that the voucher bill would allocate state funding to help market the program to families while public schools struggle to receive support from Texas officials in the work they do educating the state’s 5.5 million students.
“How nice would it be?” she asked.
Rep. Diego Bernal, a Democrat from San Antonio, repeatedly asked about how the state would ensure low-income families receive access to the program if the law doesn’t require private schools to help them with the costs. The average private school tuition in Texas sits at roughly $11,340, according to Private School Review, so the House’s voucher proposal may not fully cover the price at some campuses.
“Unless there’s a policy to do that, they’re asking me to bank on their goodwill. And I don’t doubt that that exists, but that’s not how you make policy,” Bernal said. “You can’t make policy like this — hoping that someone finds it in their heart to really make it happen.”
Talarico condemned his colleagues who support vouchers for choosing to invest billions of dollars into such a program instead of directing that funding to other critical areas.
“Instead of putting this toward public schools, roads, health care, water, we are sending it to parents who are already sending their kids to private school,” he said. “You can defend that. I think that is a catastrophic decision, an immoral decision.”
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SUMMARY: Former HISD executive Brian Busby and contractor Anthony Hutcherson were found guilty of federal corruption charges related to a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. The scheme, which began in 2018, involved inflated maintenance and landscaping contracts that funneled $7 million from the district into their pockets. Busby, the former chief operating officer, secured contracts for Hutcherson in exchange for cash, luxury renovations, and kickbacks. Both men were convicted of 33 charges, including conspiracy, bribery, and witness tampering. They face up to 35 years in federal prison, with sentencing set for July 28th.
Brian Busby was COO of the district. Anthony Hutchinson was a contract vendor. They’re both now facing prison time.
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Federal judges have ordered immigration officials to temporarily restore the legal status of three people from India who came to Texas on student visas.
Manoj Mashatti, Chandraprakash Hinge and Akshar Patel are among more than a thousand students nationwide whose permission to be in the U.S. was revoked. International students have been discovering in recent weeks that their immigration status was marked as terminated in a database used to keep track of international students known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.
Mashatti obtained an F-1 student visa to pursue a master’s degree in business analytics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He graduated in May 2024 and then applied for and received authorization to work as a full-time data engineer, according to his lawsuit. UT-Dallas informed him his status was terminated on April 2 based on a prior arrest for driving while intoxicated. He had completed probation for that charge.
Court documents provide fewer details about Hinge and Patel. Their attorney said they were both students at the University of Texas at Arlington and have graduated.
Hinge came to the U.S. in 2020 to get a graduate degree. Patel was an undergraduate student who says his immigration status was terminated from SEVIS solely because of a November 2018 arrest for reckless driving. That case was dismissed.
Both their LinkedIn profiles indicate they still live and work in North Texas, Hinge as a thermal engineer and Patel in the computer science field.
Steven Brown, the immigration attorney representing the students, filed separate lawsuits for each one against Todd M. Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in federal courts in Washington, D.C.
The judge in Hinge’s case said ICE had offered conflicting positions in both its court filings and oral arguments about what effect its actions had on Hinge’s visa. The judge wrote in his order that the student’s legal status should remain unchanged.
Brown said none of his three clients have left the country.
He added that he may be bringing more lawsuits against ICE on behalf of other international students in Texas and across the country whose legal immigration status has been revoked.
Brown said the way ICE is targeting students appears to be “arbitrary” and “capricious.” That’s also how four UT Rio Grande Valley students who have sued the Department of Homeland Security have described federal immigration officials’ actions. Those students’ attorney, Marlene Dougherty, declined to comment to The Texas Tribune on Friday.
The federal government has said it is targeting people who have committed crimes or participated in protests it views as antisemitic.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement to the Tribune that it regularly reviews whether visa holders are complying with requirements to remain in good standing. SEVIS terminations may occur for various reasons, the statement said, including if they stopped going to school or working. When it finds violations, the agency added, it notifies the Department of State, which may consider revoking the students’ visa after considering their criminal history and other national security concerns.
“This process is nothing new and is part of a longstanding protocol and program,” a senior DHS official said. “Individuals who remain in the U.S. without lawful immigration status may be subject to arrest and removal. If a SEVIS record is terminated or a visa revoked, the individual will be notified and typically given 10 days to depart the country voluntarily. The safest and most efficient option is self-deportation using the CBP Home app.”
A Department of State spokesperson said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation and its actions in specific cases for privacy reasons.
The Consulate General for India could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.
International students across the country are asking federal judges to temporarily block the government from changing their legal immigration status. In this week alone, judges in at least five states have granted their requests, according to CNN and Reuters.
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Disclosure: University of Texas – Arlington and University of Texas – Dallas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-18 15:31:00
(The Center Square) – Texas broke its own employment records again in March, leading the U.S. in job creation. The outlier was in the oil and natural gas sector, which reported a loss, breaking its own pattern of job records, reflecting market volatility.
As in previous months, Texas broke its own employment records for having the greatest number of jobs, the greatest number of Texans working and the largest labor force in state history in March, according to the latest Texas Workforce Commission data.
Texas employers reported the largest labor force in state history again with a new record of 15,778,500, marking 57 of 59 months of growth. Over the year, Texas’ civilian labor force added 301,400 workers, more than any other state.
Texas also reached a new high for the greatest number of Texans working last month, including the self-employed, totaling 15,137,500.
Texas also added 26,500 positions over the month to reach a total of 14,282,600 nonfarm jobs in March. Texas employers added 192,100 nonfarm jobs over the year, more than any other state, bringing the annual nonfarm growth rate to 1.4%, again outpacing the national growth rate by 0.2%.
“Texas leads the nation in job creation thanks to our booming economy and highly skilled workforce,” Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Every month, Texas welcomes businesses from across the country and around the world to innovate and invest in our great state. By funding our schools more than ever before and expanding career and technical training programs, we will prepare more Texans for better job and bigger paycheck opportunities to build a more prosperous Texas.”
“The robust Texas economy continues to create opportunities for our workforce, as evidenced by over 544,000 job postings in March, despite record employment,” noted TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Alberto Treviño III. “TWC is committed to ensuring Texans can capitalize on this economic momentum by providing services like career counseling, job search assistance, and skills training, helping them develop a clear path to career success.”
Texas is also “outpacing the nation in various industries, reinforcing the state’s reputation across the world as the best for doing business,” TWC Commissioner Representing Employers Joe Esparza said.
Last month, the Private Education and Health Services industry reported the largest over-the-month increase after adding 9,500 jobs, according to the data. Construction added 8,500 jobs over the month; Trade, Transportation, and Utilities added 6,100. As Texas expands construction and infrastructure projects statewide, the construction industry reported the largest growth in the country of 3.4% over the year, outperforming the industry’s growth rate nationally by 1.6%.
Unlike previous months, the Texas upstream sector reported a loss of 700 jobs over the month in oil and natural gas extraction. Total jobs in the sector hovered just over 204,400.
The upstream sector includes oil and natural gas extraction and some types of mining. It excludes other sectors like refining, petrochemicals, fuels wholesaling, oilfield equipment manufacturing, pipelines, and gas utilities, which support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs statewide.
That’s down from the sector adding 1,900 jobs over the month in February, bringing the total upstream employment to 205,400 two months ago before the Trump tariff war began, The Center Square reported.
“As a result of recent commodity price movement and significant market volatility, there are high uncertainties in outlooks for future energy supply, demand and prices,” the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association notes in an analysis of the employment data.
TIPRO and others have expressed concerns about the Trump administration tariff policy and pushing for foreign crude production, which is negatively impacting the industry and caused oil prices to tank, The Center Square reported. A silver lining, industry executives argue, is the administration rolling back Biden-era regulations that targeted it, The Center Square reported.
