by (in alphabetical order) John Garrett Clawson, Cassie Davis, Reynaldo De La Garza, Katie Floyd , Sarah Pollock

Supervisor: Paul von Hippel

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While no ESA program currently exists in Texas, the 2015 bill SB 1178 describes several program features that may be included in later bills.Parents who register for the proposed in 2015 the Texas Senate considered an ESA bill (SB 1178). The bill did not pass, but it may have features in common with ESA proposals that are considered in 2017.

According to the 2015 ESA bill, parents who participated in the ESA program would receive a debit card with funds that may be applied to educational expenses. The office of the Texas Commissioner would be in charge of establishing and managing funds to be distributed for approved educational-related expenses for eligible students. The debit card would be funded with 80% of the amount that would have been allocated to the student in the their home school district he/she would have otherwise attended. Students with disabilities or “educational disadvantages” and students living in poverty (“educationally disadvantaged” students) would receive the full amount (100%) that would have been allocated to the their home school district that they would have otherwise attended. A third party would assess applications to determine the level of funding for which each student was eligible. The

In the 2015 Texas bill, the amount allocated per student is would have been similar to the amount allocated by ESA programs in other states. For example, Arizona allocates 90% of the amount that would have gone to a public school for a given student (FN SB 1363, 2013), Nevada allocates up to 90% (SB 302, 2015), Tennessee allocates 100% (SB 431, 2015), and Florida and Mississippi allocate fixed amounts ($9,000 and $6,500) that are comparable to those states' per student public education spending (Florida SB 850, 2014; Mississippi SB 2695, 2015; the Mississippi amount is legislated to increase with per pupil public school spending).

To sign up for the program proposed in by the 2015 Texas bill, parents would agree (SB 1178, 2015):

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However, consumables (e.g., pens and paper), transportation, and technological equipment would NOT be eligible expenses under SB 1178.

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Legal Issues

States that have passed legislation adopting ESAs include Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee (EdChoice, 2016). Legislation is typically challenged on a constitutional basis; 40 states have constitutional amendments or provisions that prohibit public funding of "religious worship, exercise or instruction" (DeForrest, 2003). Referred to collectively as "Blaine Amendments," in reference to the original failed amendment to the United States Constitution, these state laws are part of the legal landscape in all states that currently have ESAs, with the exception of Tennessee. Plaintiffs argue that because money diverted from public schools to fund ESAs can be spent on tuition at religious private schools, such laws are unconstitutional in states with a Blaine Amendment. Similar forms of school choice, such as vouchers, have also been challenged on this basis in a larger number of states (Burke & Butcher, 2016; Healy & Rich, 2015).

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ESAs are a new reform, and little direct evaluation of their effects currently exists. Indirect evidence, however, can be gleaned from evaluations of voucher programs . While ESAs often have fewer restrictions on eligible expenditures than do voucher programs (which are typically limited exclusively to tuition), early evidence from Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Program ESA program has found that two-thirds of the state's ESA disbursements are being spent on tuition , even though Arizona's ESA program is limited to special-needs and disadvantaged children who have a variety of other expenses (Burke, 2013). In a universal ESA program like the one proposed in Texas, it seems likely that an even larger share of Texas ESA funds would be spent on tuition, so that the effects of ESAs would be similar to those of tuition-only vouchers.

A summary of the The evidence on vouchers will be given on a forthcoming page. ' achievement effects is summarized on another page .

References

Burke, Lindsay. "The Education Debit Card: What Arizona Parents Purchase With Education Savings Accounts." EdChoice. August, 2013. Accessed November 11, 2016. https://www.edchoice.org/research/the-education-debit-card/

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Sandra Chereb. “Nevada Supreme Court Strikes Down School Choice Funding Method.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. September 29, 2016.

S.B. 1178, Texas 84th Cong. (2015).

S.B. 1363 Fiscal Note, Arizona 51st Cong. Schimpp, Steve. (2013).

S.B. 2695, Mississippi 114th Cong. (2015).

S.B. 302, Nevada 302nd Cong. (2015).

S.B. 431, Tennessee 431st Cong. (2015).

S.N. 850, Florida 116th Cong. (2014).

Villanueva, Chandra. "It's Time to Renovate our School Finance System." Center for Public Policy Priorities. 18 October 2016, University of Texas-Austin, TX. 

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