Senate
Gives Initial OK to School Scholarship Plan
By Morgan Smith
Some low-income families unhappy with their public schools would
get help paying private school tuition under a plan that won tentative approval
in the Texas Senate Monday (April 20).
Senate Bill 4, which would use state tax credits to entice up to
$100 million in business donations to fund a scholarship program, cleared
the chamber 18 to 12 with two Republicans, Konni Burton of
Colleyville and Robert
Nichols of Jacksonville, breaking party lines to vote against the measure.
One Democrat, Eddie
Lucio of Brownsville, voted in favor.
Before it passed, Democrats raised
concerns about the plan, arguing that it diverted money that should be
going to public education into an unaccountable private school system.
“They don’t have the same kinds of requirements that our public
schools do,” said state Sen. Jose Rodriguez,
D-El Paso. “I can’t seem to get around that.”
While defending his proposal, state Sen. Larry
Taylor, R-Friendswood, insisted that the legislation should not be
considered a private school voucher program — a notion that has proven
politically toxic in the Legislature.
“I don’t think we are taking money from the public schools. The
student is leaving,” said Taylor, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
“This is private money — not state money — that is donated.”
Sen. Jose Menendez,
D-San Antonio, said he viewed the legislation as a way to “short circuit around
the whole voucher concept.”
“It is money that a corporation will be giving to a scholarship
program in lieu of paying tax,” he said.
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