Do Texas School Vouchers Cover Average Private School Tuition?
$10,000 sounds like a lot until you start trying to pay for private school tuition in Texas.
By Kelly Dearmore/The Dallas Observer
February 10, 2025
(Edited for content and to simply answer the question. School vouchers will pass the Texas House...but it is important to know whose children will benefit. Read on.)
Under Senate Bill 2, families would receive $10,000 in public funds per year, per student, through what Abbott has termed “education savings accounts.” The funds can be used towards private school tuition and other approved expenses including textbooks and school transportation. That amount would be slightly higher for students with disabilities, and families that homeschool their children would be eligible for $2,000 per year, per student.
Advocates, almost exclusively Republican, say this sort of “universal school choice” will allow parents to send kids to schools that they feel may be better options than what is available in their current public school district. Many conservative lawmakers have pointed to the teaching of critical race theory and DEI efforts as reasons they hope steer clear of certain public schools, while some also say that a voucher program will create a competition that they hope will lead to public schools performing better.
Opponents of school vouchers say that taking public money away from public schools will only hurt the system, especially in rural areas or smaller towns where there are fewer, if any, options for schooling other than the public schools. According to the Texas Democratic Party, 158 of 254 Texas counties do not have a private school for parents to send their children to if they wanted to.
Critics of this bill also point out that private schools do not have the same laws and guidelines as public schools when it comes to who can be accepted and denied and that the bill stands to mainly benefit those schools, not low-income families seeking a greater choice.
Dallas Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson spoke on the matter last week in Austin. In a video clip posted to his X account, he says “What [SB 2] does is redistribute wealth and then moves money into private schools, 75% of which in Texas are religiously affiliated.”
Perhaps the biggest complaint against the voucher system proposed in SB 2 is that rather than helping low-income families, the public money, as opponents see it, would primarily be used as a subsidy for middle and upper class families who can already afford to send their kids to private schools or are already doing so.
Recent numbers indicate that is the case in some other states by a pretty large margin. A recent study from Reaching Higher Hew Hampshire found that “historically, more than 75% of the students receiving a school voucher were already enrolled in private schools or were homeschooled.” A 2024 report from the Grand Canyon Institute estimates “that 82% of universal ESA recipients never attended a district or charter school.”
One of the reasons that concern is prominent among Texas Democrats is that the average cost of a year’s tuition for private school for one student in Texas is more than the $10,000 being offered for students without disabilities.
According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of private schools in Texas hovers around the national average:
$11,050 is the average tuition among all K-12 private schools in Texas.
$10,729 is the average cost of tuition at private elementary schools.
$12,161 is the average cost of tuition at secondary schools.
Those numbers only represent the average costs. According to a WFAA report in January, the annual tuition for the best private schools in Dallas soar well above the state averages.
By Kelly Dearmore/The Dallas Observer
February 10, 2025
(Edited for content and to simply answer the question. School vouchers will pass the Texas House...but it is important to know whose children will benefit. Read on.)
Under Senate Bill 2, families would receive $10,000 in public funds per year, per student, through what Abbott has termed “education savings accounts.” The funds can be used towards private school tuition and other approved expenses including textbooks and school transportation. That amount would be slightly higher for students with disabilities, and families that homeschool their children would be eligible for $2,000 per year, per student.
Advocates, almost exclusively Republican, say this sort of “universal school choice” will allow parents to send kids to schools that they feel may be better options than what is available in their current public school district. Many conservative lawmakers have pointed to the teaching of critical race theory and DEI efforts as reasons they hope steer clear of certain public schools, while some also say that a voucher program will create a competition that they hope will lead to public schools performing better.
Opponents of school vouchers say that taking public money away from public schools will only hurt the system, especially in rural areas or smaller towns where there are fewer, if any, options for schooling other than the public schools. According to the Texas Democratic Party, 158 of 254 Texas counties do not have a private school for parents to send their children to if they wanted to.
Critics of this bill also point out that private schools do not have the same laws and guidelines as public schools when it comes to who can be accepted and denied and that the bill stands to mainly benefit those schools, not low-income families seeking a greater choice.
Dallas Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson spoke on the matter last week in Austin. In a video clip posted to his X account, he says “What [SB 2] does is redistribute wealth and then moves money into private schools, 75% of which in Texas are religiously affiliated.”
Perhaps the biggest complaint against the voucher system proposed in SB 2 is that rather than helping low-income families, the public money, as opponents see it, would primarily be used as a subsidy for middle and upper class families who can already afford to send their kids to private schools or are already doing so.
Recent numbers indicate that is the case in some other states by a pretty large margin. A recent study from Reaching Higher Hew Hampshire found that “historically, more than 75% of the students receiving a school voucher were already enrolled in private schools or were homeschooled.” A 2024 report from the Grand Canyon Institute estimates “that 82% of universal ESA recipients never attended a district or charter school.”
One of the reasons that concern is prominent among Texas Democrats is that the average cost of a year’s tuition for private school for one student in Texas is more than the $10,000 being offered for students without disabilities.
According to the Education Data Initiative, the average cost of private schools in Texas hovers around the national average:
$11,050 is the average tuition among all K-12 private schools in Texas.
$10,729 is the average cost of tuition at private elementary schools.
$12,161 is the average cost of tuition at secondary schools.
Those numbers only represent the average costs. According to a WFAA report in January, the annual tuition for the best private schools in Dallas soar well above the state averages.
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