Texas lawmakers approve $1B private school voucher plan

News

Texas lawmakers approve $1B private school voucher plan

2025-04-25 06:12 Last Updated At：06:20

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas lawmakers on Thursday passed a $1 billion education bill that allows families to use public money to pay for private school tuition, a major victory for school voucher proponents nationwide that was cheered on by President Donald Trump.

The measure won final approval from the state Senate and now heads to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had muscled the GOP-majority Legislature to pass the bill and has vowed to quickly sign it into law.

“This is historic school choice legislation,” Abbott said in a statement posted on X. “Thanks to the dedication of our lawmakers, Texas families will soon have education freedom!”

More than 30 states have implemented some sort of voucher program in the U.S., and about a dozen states in recent years have launched or expanded programs that make most students eligible. Texas' version will be among the largest in the nation and is seen as a major victory for proponents who hope to push a similar effort on the federal level.

For decades, the push in Texas had failed in the face of stiff resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans who called it a threat to public schools in a state that now has more than 5 million students in public classrooms.

But supporters gradually gained ground and Abbott, a three-term governor, threw his political muscle behind it in the 2024 elections by backing numerous candidates who would support it. That effort built the majority support the issue needed after decades of failure.

Trump played a key role in getting the measure through a critical state House vote a week ago, when he spoke with a group of Republican lawmakers on a speakerphone call and urged them to approve it.

The program in its first year would be capped at $1 billion and used by up to 90,000 students, but it could grow to nearly $4.5 billion per year by 2030. The money can be used for private school tuition or costs for home-schooling and virtual learning programs. Families could get up to $10,000 each year per student under the program, and a student with disabilities would be eligible for as much as $30,000 per year.

Supporters of the measure say the vouchers can help parents get their children out of poor-performing public schools and create competition that will force public schools to improve.

“The one thing that is missing from our education process that has really made America great is competition,” said Republican state Sen. Bob Hall.

Critics, however, argue it will weaken public schools by draining money and resources and giving them to private schools, who can have selective enrollment and may not operate under some of the same rules.

And they argue it will put money in the pocket of wealthier families already sending their children to costly private schools.

The bill is “not about ‘school choice,’” the Senate Democratic caucus said in a statement. “It's about public subsidization of private schools' choice. It's a step backwards for Texas.”

The issue is not settled among Republicans nationwide. On Monday, North Dakota's Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong vetoed a private school voucher program in that state, saying the bill fell “far short of truly expanding choice as it only impacts one sector of our student population.”

Video captures Minneapolis immigration arrest in a city on edge after shooting of Renee Good

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily-armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have done extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away and soon gone.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.

Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.

Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.