This past week, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Kelly Hancock announced the final rules for the $1 billion private school voucher scheme passed by the Texas Legislature. The rules cover the administration of the program by certified educational assistance organizations (CEAO), program participation, education service providers and vendors of educational products, and approved education-related expenses.
The draft rules were first discussed at a hearing in September, with testifiers speaking to a few main components:
- The special education qualifications and how that eligibility is determined
- Ongoing accountability collection and reporting of program data
Initially, some private pre-K providers were left out of the rules based on their accrediting body and thus ineligible for the full $10k voucher. The final rules clarify that preschool students are eligible for the full amount if they also meet the state’s free public pre-K requirements.
Unfortunately, the final rules regarding special education qualifications did not reflect the concerns of multiple testifiers at the September hearing. Witnesses argued that students should first have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to ensure that children with a demonstrated need would be prioritized. They explained that a medical disability diagnosis is not equivalent to a school’s special education eligibility determination and stated that the proposed rule conflicted with the Texas Education Agency’s own rules, as well as federal guidelines. Parents are often unaware, until it’s too late, that educational services for students with disabilities provided at a private school are not required to live up to the high standards of federal law required at public schools.
The comptroller disagreed and will allow a Social Security determination letter or a physician’s note to suffice. Like many parts of this voucher scheme, this broad determination will hurt our underfunded schools because each student applying for a disability voucher will need to receive an evaluation from a public school. Public schools will be required to provide these evaluations within 45 days of a request to do so.
On the issue of accountability, the comptroller heard from several witnesses expressing worries about the voucher experience in other states that resulted in questionable spending such as $1 million spent on Legos in Arizona or Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld tickets purchased in Florida. Again, the comptroller disregarded witnesses’ concerns and stated that voucher rules will only comply with the meager accountability standards established in Senate Bill 2, including an audit that is not disclosed to the public — meaning taxpayers could be left in the dark about financial malfeasance by vendors and voucher recipients.
Stakeholders will also not receive a comprehensive review of the data until five years after the program is in place.
Voucher amounts for K-12:
- Most families applying for the voucher will receive $10,300 per year (85% of the estimated statewide average amount of state and local funding per student in average daily attendance)
- $30,000 is the maximum amount that a student with disabilities could receive per year.
- Homeschool students, meanwhile, could receive $2,000 per year.
If voucher applications exceed funding available, then applications will be prioritized in the following order:
- Students with disabilities from families with an annual income at or below 500% of the federal poverty level, approximately $160,000
- Families at or below 200% of the poverty level, approximately $64,300
- Families between 200% and 500% of the poverty level
- Families at or above 500% of the poverty level (limited to 20% of the program’s budget)
This priority system does not guarantee access to the program. Unlike public schools, which must accept all comers, private schools decide if they want to admit a student and how many students they want to admit. Kids who cost the most to educate, like at-risk students, are among those least likely to be accepted by private schools.
If a private school chooses to admit a voucher student, the school can later reject that same student for reasons that would be unlawful at a public school.
Educational research demonstrates that voucher programs in other states have had either negligible or negative impacts on students in comparison with results achieved in public schools with similar student populations.
The Middleman
The Texas voucher law authorizes the selected “certified educational assistance organization” (CEAO) to receive up to 5% of the $1 billion allocated to fund Texas’ voucher program in the current biennium – a potential total of $50 million of your taxpayer dollars for operational expenses alone.
What causes more concern is who the comptroller appointed to administer this $1 billion program: Odyssey, a New York-based company with a long track record of mishandling public funds on much smaller voucher programs than Texas’s.
Public reporting on Odyssey has raised repeated questions about the company’s operations and ability to run other states’ voucher programs in almost every state where it has operated. Odyssey currently manages voucher programs in four states that awarded an estimated $261 million in vouchers – only about 25% of the $1 billion that the Texas program will spend in year one alone.