House’s special education school choice bill garners criticism, cheers

Measure would create education savings accounts .

Parents, educators and advocacy groups Thursday night both lauded and lambasted a Texas House bill that would create a school choice program for special education students.

House Bill 1335 filed by Rep. Ron Simmons, R-Carrollton, would spend state money to help parents of special education students pay private school tuition, among other non-public school expenses.

“If one thing we’re learning about special needs children is it is a broad spectrum and what’s good for one is not good for another,” said Simmons, who has an adult son with autism, during a House Public Education Committee hearing. “What this bill does is it gives a small group of people the opportunity for chance at total success for their children.”

School choice, sometimes referred to by critics as private school vouchers, has emerged as one of the most divisive education issues this legislative session.

On Thursday, more than 45 people had registered to testify on the bill with supporters and opponents represented about equally. By the time the committee took up the bill for consideration, about half remained to testify and their testimonies continued past midnight.

Simmons’ bill would create a system of so-called education savings accounts loaded with state money equivalent to 90 percent of what school districts get from the state on average to educate a student. Students who have such an account can use the money to pay for non-public education options such as home, online and private schooling.

Special education students whose families make below 400 percent of the state’s median income — $222,613 — would qualify. Unlike the major school choice bill from the Senate, HB 1335 does not require the student to have attended a public school to qualify for the education savings account.

Simmons has scaled back his original measure, which did not have an income cap and also included students who were bullied or victims of sex crimes. According to the Legislative Budget Board, the original version of the bill would have cost the state between $64 million and $212 million over the next two years.

Simmons said he expects only about 1 percent to 2 percent of the state’s 450,000 students with disabilities would open an education savings account.

Those who opposed the bill on Thursday included representatives from special education, minority, home schooling and public school advocacy groups. Opponents said that cashstrapped schools would lose money through Simmons’ bill and the savings account money wouldn’t be enough to cover private school tuition. Home schooling parents said they fear more state regulations from the state. But critics said their primary concern was that private schools would not have to provide special education services as required by federal law.

“Public schools are held accountable for a student’s progress and we’re required to provide many types of related services. Private schools do not have to live up to that standard,” said Dana Johnson, the special education director for the Johnson City School District. “They’re not required to modify the curriculum for students with significant disabilities.”

Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston and chairman of the committee, said that he was concerned about whether HB 1335 would prevent the state from getting federal matching dollars for special education.

Proponents of the bill, including several parents of children with special needs, told committee members that private schools have given children with disabilities a high-quality, flexible education. Some also said that school districts which created bureaucratic red tape had failed their children and that having the extra money from the state would help alleviate the thousands spent on private school tuition.

“There’s nothing that ... a public school would ever have been able to do to accommodate (him) because the situation just wasn’t built for him,” said Austin resident Melissa Bodenger, a parent of a 10-year-old child with autism who is in private school.

The Senate’s school choice bill — Senate Bill 3 — also would create a system of education savings accounts as well as tax credit scholarships to help students, regardless of educational needs, pay for private school tuition, among other non-public school expenses. Both programs under the bill would be limited to urban, low-income students and any students with disabilities.

Although SB 3 has cleared the Senate, it hasn’t gained traction in the House and it’s unclear how far Simmons’ bill will go. Earlier this month, House members passed an amendment to their version of the two-year state budget that would bar any state money from going to school choice programs.

HB 1335 was left pending in the House Public Education Committee on Friday.