Raise Your Hand Texas’ Statement on the House’s Passage of HB 2 and SB 2 

Yesterday, the Texas House took an important step by passing HB 2, a public school funding bill that invests $7.7 billion over the next two years in our schools. This is much-needed support after years of inflationary pressures and new state mandates. The bill makes good progress in increasing the basic allotment, updating special education formulas, and targeting funding for bilingual and compensatory education students. While it is true that going into this legislative session, our schools needed almost $20 billion to keep pace with double-digit inflation, and an additional $50 billion to be in the middle of the pack for per-student funding nationally, HB 2 is a significant down payment on the support Texas students deserve. We look forward to continuing to partner with the entire legislature on this important work.  

For the first time in its history, the House also passed a bill to create education savings accounts, SB 2.

Raise Your Hand Texas has long opposed vouchers and continues to believe that they are not the right policy for Texas. However, we applaud Speaker Burrows and key members of the Texas House for the significant work they did to add important, meaningful safeguards to this bill. These include a cap on the percentage of funds appropriated that will be available to higher-income families, as well as a requirement that private schools operate for two years before accessing the program. As the debate continues over SB 2, we hope legislators keep these important safeguards in place.