Jason Bedrick, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Matthew Ladner, executive director of ReimaginED, wrote a commentary for National Review about Texas' education reform debate. Bedrick and Ladner argue the state will continue to fall behind Florida in attracting new residents if the legislature fails to pass the Gov. Greg Abbott-backed school choice bill, which is receiving pushback from rural Republicans in the Texas House. The authors cite studies on how school choice policies have benefited Arizona and Florida public schools and argue Texas needs education reform to stay competitive economically.
According to Bedrick and Ladner, the education savings account proposal that passed the Texas Senate is struggling to make its way through the House as "several Republican legislators have balked." If passed, the ESA program would allow Texas families to receive about "$8,000 per K–12 student annually to pay for private-school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, online courses, special-needs therapy, and numerous other educational expenses."
The authors cite a Morning Consult Poll which found 70% of Texans are in favor of some form of education choice. Of those polled, 76% of parents of children that are school-age support school choice. Bedrick and Ladner also mention that 88% of GOP voters in the last primary supported a proposition that read: “Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student." The authors point out that "some of the highest levels of support came from rural counties."
According to the Bedrick and Ladner, despite strong support for school choice in rural Texas, Republican lawmakers from rural districts are critical of school choice policies, making the argument that if parents have options for education, their local district public schools will suffer. The Texas Association of School Boards argues families have little to no options other than the local public school in rural areas. Bedrock and Ladner argue that "[parents] might have nothing to gain. But they’d also have nothing to lose." The Brookings Institute also published a report that found 7 in 10 families living in rural areas live within 10 miles of a private elementary school.
To contradict the argument that school choice policies will lead to the destruction of public schools with a drop in enrollment, Bedrick and Ladner cite Arizona and Florida as examples as both have implemented universal education freedom programs. Citing a Heritage study, the authors say Arizona and Florida "have simultaneously witnessed an increase in rural private-school enrollment and an improvement in public-school performance." In Arizona, rural elementary students reading and math scores increased by 21 points from 2007-2019.
Lastly, Bedrick and Ladner argue Texas will lose its "competitive edge" if education choice bills are not passed. Florida attracted 100,000 more residents than Texas from 2021-2022. Florida gained $39.2 billion from domestic migration while Texas saw a net gain of $10.9 billion. The authors also mention other states following Florida and Arizona in establishing education reform, noting the need for Texas lawmakers to decide and pass a school choice bill for the economic future of the state.