On Feb. 6, 2025, the Texas legislature passed Senate Bill Two (SB 2), establishing educational savings accounts (ESAs), a form of school vouchers. The goal of the bill is to promote school choice, especially for families who fall short economically of giving the best education for their children.
SB 2, designed by Sen. Brandon Creighton, is an ESA program that gives parents a broader selection of schools to direct their child’s school funding. Under the bill, $1 billion in funds will be given out to 100,000 students.
The program is universal, but up to 80 percent of available slots will be held for students with disabilities or household income at or below 500 percent of the federal poverty level enrolled in a public school the previous year.
“It is my understanding that an educational savings account would direct money from the general education fund in the state of Texas to be used by a parent for certain uses,” Assistant Director of Admission and Financial Aid Korey Mack ‘00 said. “Those eligible uses would include private school tuition, tutoring, a therapist, speech therapy and may include afterschool programs.”
Since the educational savings funds have to come from somewhere, an increasing number of public school teachers are becoming worried that their salaries are in the reducible margins. In response to SB 2, Senate Bill 26 (SB 26) was recently advanced to the Texas Senate full chamber.
“I do think SB 2, whether directly or indirectly, will have an impact on teachers and I just want to highlight the parallel bill (SB 26) that was brought before the house,” Mack said. “Legislators used SB 2 as the basis to argue for teachers’ salary raises and free PreK for teachers. I think it is a benefit to expand this conversation beyond just educational savings accounts.”
As far as school admissions go, Mack isn’t sure whether St. Mark’s will participate in SB 2 or not. However, Mack is certain that the school is already doing its best to support all families and students who want to attend.
“We have a very robust tuition assistance program, and it is our hope that if a student is qualified to come to St. Mark’s and wants to be at St. Mark’s, their family’s ability to pay is not a barrier that’s holding them back from attending St. Mark’s currently,” Mack said. “If this bill is to have any impact, I think it would force us to better educate our prospective families about our own tuition assistance program.”
