'It means so much,' Sen. Creighton reflects on impact of passing education savings account bill
AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Gov. Greg Abbott will soon sign legislation to allow Texas parents to use public dollars to help pay for private education. On Thursday, the Texas Senate voted to send a $1 billion education savings account program to the governor to be signed into law.
“There being 19 ayes and 12 nays, school choice has come to Texas!” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said as he brought the gavel down on the vote to approve Senate Bill 2. Senators concurred with changes made by the Texas House, speeding the path for the bill to reach the governor’s desk.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, authored SB 2, which creates a $1 billion education savings account program. Creighton carried similar legislation that failed to pass in previous sessions. Before Thursday’s vote, he reflected on the long path to final passage.
“Many members across this floor have championed school choice your entire legislative careers, and I’m so thankful for you and to have been able to partner with you, because this was a team effort, and we all know as we work together, and I’m proud to have played a role,” Creighton said.
“We all know who we’re working for, who we’re fighting for. It’s our Texas moms and dads and grandmothers and grandfathers and guardians and students that long from now these littles, they will one day understand how they came to receive an opportunity that they never even knew didn’t exist prior to their receipt of it, and one day long, down the road, when they are adults and they have a family of their own, they’re going to be thankful to each of you,” Creighton added before the vote.
This year, as in previous sessions, opponents of the bill raised concerns that the ESA program primarily benefits wealthier families at the expense of students in public schools.
The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus released a statement after the vote, calling the bill “a deeply flawed voucher scheme.”
“Let’s be clear: SB 2 is not about ‘school choice.’ It’s about public subsidization of private schools’ choice,” the statemen read. “It is a step backward for Texas, jeopardizing the very system that supports the overwhelming majority of our children and abandoning our constitutional responsibility to provide every child with a quality public education.”
Creighton has called that criticism a “manufactured narrative.”
“There are 74 school choice programs across the country—nearly 34 states now. One thing that we know for sure from the data is that student outcomes increase, safety increases, college readiness increases,” Creighton said in an interview after the vote.
“We want Texas students to have those same opportunities, and we’re going to do our best to deliver on those. So I’m very comfortable with where we’ve landed for the students that need help the most,” Creighton added.
Sen. Creighton tried to counter concerns that education savings accounts will take resources from public schools. He emphasized that lawmakers also approved significant increases for public school funding this session.
“Well, it’s clear in the numbers and in our budgets that with the nearly $100 billion of investment that we’re putting into Texas public schools across our 5.4 million public school students, you can do the math right there on how much that is per student,” Creighton said.
“Our public schools are going to get better with school choice. But on the funding, we normally average about $2 billion a biennium in new dollars for our public schools. We’re at between six and eight billion now. So nearly, nearly a three to four times factor on the amount of new dollars we put into our schools,” Creighton added. He also touted legislative efforts to raise teacher pay.
“The largest teacher pay raise in Texas history was also my bill. That is permanent. It’s not a bonus or a stipend, but the Senate plan makes that permanent. So I think that as we land the plane at the end of session, with all the policies and the funding and the supports for our public schools and public school teachers, we will have so much to celebrate, and it will be a model for the nation,” Creighton said.
Another concern about the plan is that the ESA will not fully cover the cost of many private schools, particularly for families with lower household incomes. “What you are professing is to give them a 10-foot rope, and they are in a 12-foot hole,” State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, said during debate in the House.
Creighton maintains that the average tuition for private schools in Texas is $9,500, slightly below the $10,000 provided under the ESA program. Students with disabilities and other special needs can receive up to $30,000. But even that amount falls short of the cost of many private schools.
Creighton noted that some schools and private donors could provide funding to help make up the difference for some students.
“You have some of the greatest amount of philanthropy in the great state of Texas, as an example, compared to any other place in the nation,” Creighton said. “I believe that if there’s a delta and an additional need for what a private school would cost for tuition, I believe that need will be served, and we’ve got impressive organizations that are ready to provide that kind of assistance.”
The ESA program is expected to roll out for the 2026-27 school year. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol for the next session in 2027. Creighton indicated that the legislature will revisit ESAs at that time to make sure the program is working as intended.
“What we’ve seen from data across the nation is for a new school choice plan like Texas will have, we need to build an appropriate runway with the right kind of supports and the framework to truly help the families with a successful launch,” Creighton said. “So our opportunities within Senate Bill 2 for our families across the state, that will start in ’26 and ’27 to make sure that there’s appropriate time for the Comptroller to build this program. So we’ll be back in session in January of ’27 to make any needed adjustments or calibrations, as we always do with any bill that we pass.”
Getting an ESA bill through the legislature is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of full-court press from Abbott. He first declared the proposal an emergency item in the 2023 legislative session, but couldn’t get it through the Texas House of Representatives. Later that year, he called four special sessions — two of them with the specific intent to create ESA legislation — but could never get enough support.
He then funded the campaign for 15 challengers to Texas House Republicans who voted against ESA legislation, successfully ousting 11 incumbents.
For Creighton, the push for legislation like SB 2 has been in the works for more than a decade. With the finish line in sight, he reflected on what he hopes the legacy of this legislation will be.
“We know who this bill is going to be helping, and we’re so happy to be at this point in time to see the passage of the legislation, and the bill soon will be headed to the governor’s desk and these families that are going to get help from this expanded option in education, just seeing their faces and understanding the potential and future for these kids is all I’ll ever need as a legislator when I look back on my career,” Creighton said.
