The Senate Education Committee will meet at 9 a.m., Wednesday, March 22, in Hearing Room E1.028 to hear testimony on the following bills:
- SB 8 (Creighton, et al.) is a comprehensive bill related to various aspects of parental rights relating to public education, including the establishment of a voucher (education savings account) program. See a full summary of the bill by searching for SB 8 in TASA’s Bill Tracker.
- SB 9 (Creighton, et al.) relates to the rights, certification, and compensation of public school educators and assistance provided to public schools by TEA related to public school educators and to certain allotments under the Foundation School Program.
- SJR 29 (Paxton) proposes a constitutional amendment establishing a parent’s right to direct a child’s education.
- SB 176 (Middleton, et al.) creates the Texas Parental Empowerment Program, which creates an education savings account program, funded by money transferred from the foundation school fund, general revenue, money appropriated, gifts, grants, contributions and any other money available for purposes of the program. See a full summary of the bill by searching for SB 176 in TASA’s Bill Tracker.
- SB 960 (Campbell) relates to state savings and government efficiency achieved through a taxpayer savings grant program administered by the comptroller of public accounts. This bill was removed from the agenda on March 21.
- SB 2354 (Bettencourt) relates to the establishment of the Education Savings Account Program to allow certain disadvantaged children and their siblings to use public money to pursue educational alternatives to public schools and an insurance premium tax credit for contributions made for purposes of that program.
- SB 2483 (Paxton) relates to the establishment of an Education Savings Account program. (This bill was added to the agenda March 21.)
Public testimony will be limited to two minutes. If providing written testimony, please submit 15 copies to committee staff at the hearing.
Watch the hearing live at 9 a.m. March 22.
