(The Center Square) – A majority of registered voters polled, 63%, support a proposal to create Texas’ first Education Savings Account program, according to a Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research & Survey Center poll. The remainder, 37%, oppose the legislation.
Support exists across multiple demographics.
The majority of Black respondents, 69%, white respondents, 62%, and Latino respondents, 59%, support an ESA program open to all students. Likewise, 78% of Republicans, 64% of Independents and 46% of Democrats support it.
When it comes to supporting an ESA program that restricts recipients to lower income families (a family of four with annual income of less than $50,000), support lessens to 45% overall, with 55% opposing it. Among minorities, support is high: 61% of Blacks and 44% of Latinos support it. Across party lines, 50% of Republicans, 43% of Independents and 43% of Democrats support it.
U.S. Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, introduced the ESA proposal in the Texas Senate, which nearly unanimously passed. It prioritizes ESA eligibility to the most low-income applicants.
Creighton also introduced an extensive education package, including a Teacher’s Bill of Rights, which unanimously passed the Senate, a Parental Bill of Rights, and prioritized budget funding to increase teacher salary and retirement pay, The Center Square reported.
Both the Texas Senate and House introduced budgets allocating $1 billion for an ESA pilot program that would provide $10,000 for 100,000 students to attend the school of their choice, $2,000 for home-school students, and significantly more for special needs students.
The new Speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has expressed support for the measure, saying it will pass in the House. Gov. Greg Abbott has praised Burrows, recently announcing that the Texas House has the votes for it to pass. Creighton filed multiple education bills in the last legislative session, which all passed the Senate with bipartisan support but failed in the Republican-controlled House.
The poll also highlights a key sentiment among registered voters: only 33% surveyed said their local K-12 public schools are doing an excellent (9%) or good (24%) job preparing students for college; 32% said they are doing a poor (22%) or very poor (10%) job.
Even less, 26%, said their local K-12 public schools are doing an excellent (7%) or good (19%) job preparing students for the workforce; 40% said they are doing a poor (27%) or very poor job (13%).
Half polled said they are very concerned and an additional 32% are somewhat concerned that low-income K-12 public school students are less likely than other students to be ready for college.
The poll was conducted online between Feb. 6 and Feb. 16 in English or Spanish among 1,200 respondents with an oversampling of Black Texans. This was done to allow for “a much more detailed analysis of the opinions of Black Texans than is possible in a standard representative survey,” the center said. Black Texas representation was weighted “so that their impact on the study population is proportionate to their share of the state’s population of registered voters,” it said.
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.83% and a margin of error among Black respondents of +/- 4.58%.
The poll follows one conducted last year by the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs and Texas Southern University, which found that 69% support Texas creating an ESA program, The Center Square reported.
A Hobby poll conducted ahead of last year’s Republican primary found that voters were more likely to vote out incumbents who opposed ESAs, The Center Square reported. Last year, Abbott fundraised, campaigned and endorsed Republicans to challenge House incumbents solely on the school choice issue.
His efforts paid off and the Hobby poll’s findings were accurate. In both the Republican March primary and May runoff elections, the majority of pro-school choice candidates endorsed by Abbott won their races, paving the way for school choice to become a reality in Texas.
