KATY, Texas – The Texas Senate Committee on Education had a marathon meeting Tuesday discussing SB1.
The proposal written by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, would establish an education savings account. If passed and signed into law, the program would be housed in the state comptroller’s office with $500 billion from the general fund.
SB 1 would give $8,000 of taxpayer dollars to participating students for private school tuition, purchasing textbooks, uniforms, transportation, and others.
The proposal addresses Governor Greg Abbott’s priority for the third special session.
“If the state is going to have that discussion on school choice, they can have that discussion but let’s take care of public schools with that funding that’s already been allocated,” said Katy ISD Superintendent Dr. Ken Gregorski.
In a letter to the Katy ISD community, Gregorski said additional funding for public schools is ‘absent’ from the session’s agenda.
“Our lawmakers have the opportunity right now, to meet their promise to fully fund public education and to stop holding our children, teachers, and families hostage to school voucher negotiations,” Gregorski said in the letter.
“The state did allocate $4 billion for public school funding but right now those funds remain unspent,” Gregorski said to KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun. “They’re just sitting there. That’s what I’d like seen done is some action on those current funds that are sitting there, the 4 billion dollars, that could be allocated immediately to public schools.”
Gregorski said the district has increased “utility costs, fuel, insurance, cafeteria food, construction costs, and other operational expenses.”
He did not say if the district is considering cuts.
“It’s going to be hard on the district,” Gregorski said. “There are going to be constraints on the budget each year.”