Top 5 This Week

Related Posts

Who Is “Poor” Under ESA Bill? Most Texans, Actually.

During the inaugural meeting of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, Democrats challenged assertions that a $1 billion private school subsidy bill would give priority to poor families first.  

Senate Bill 2 would create $10,000 education savings accounts for up to 100,000 public school children that could be spent on tuition for private schools and school supplies. It’s another incarnation of a policy that Gov. Greg Abbott unsuccessfully attempted to pass last session.

If all openings in the program fill up, four-fifths of the money, $800 million, would be allocated for poor families and students with special needs, which Education Committee Chair Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, emphasized on Tuesday.

“They are the priority set at the top of the weighted funds available,” said Creighton.

But Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, pointed out that the bill defines a “low-income household” as 500% of the federal poverty guidelines, which are calculated each year and set according to the number of members of a household.

By that definition, for the smallest schooling unit of a single parent and one child, any household making less than $105,750 per year would qualify as a low-income household, according to the 2025 federal poverty guidelines.

For a four-person family, that limit would be higher, at $160,750 per year. In Texas, the median household income is about $76,292, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Menéndez asked Creighton, who co-authored the bill along with the other eight Republicans on the Senate Education Committee, why the bill set it so high.

“I have not seen it in any other agency where it’s defined as 500% of the federal poverty line,” Menéndez said.

Creighton said that was one of two income cutoffs that were in various ESA bills last session — the other would be 350% of the federal poverty guidelines.

“The 500% is essentially a teacher and a fireman with a few kids in their household,” Creighton explained.

For a five-member and six-member household — using Creighton’s later clarification of a two-parent family with “three or four kids” — 500% of the federal poverty level would be $188,250 and $215,750.

Nationally, the median annual salary for a firefighter is about $57,120, per the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, while the median salary for a teacher in Texas is about $58,841, according to estimates on salary.com.

Putting those together yields a household income of about $116,000 per year, 50% higher than the median household income in Texas. That’s still below the 350% poverty threshold for a five- or six-person home.

Still, in a sense Creighton is correct: Under SB 2’s definition of poverty, all but the wealthiest couplings of firefighters and teachers would qualify as a “low-income household.” Even with both parents at the 90th percentile of income for both positions — $93,720 for a firefighter and $83,542 for a Texas teacher — that household would qualify as “low-income.”

At that salary, both parents individually would be making more alone than half of the households in Texas.

Menéndez said that the 500% definition was a source of “confusion” for him. Free lunch benefits are given to households making just 30% of the federal poverty level in Texas, he said.

“It almost seems like [poverty] doesn’t really have a priority, because … the 500% of poverty guideline is so high,” said Menéndez. “And I’m just wondering if you might be willing to amend the bill so that it really would be a set aside for people who are really the poorest.”

“It’s a great point,” Creighton said. He did not indicate whether he would be willing to make such an amendment.

Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting ran just four minutes shy of eight hours yesterday. The archived livestream can be viewed on the Senate website at senate.texas.gov/av-archive.php

Sam Stockbridge
Sam Stockbridge
Sam Stockbridge is an award-winning reporter covering politics and the legislature. When he isn’t wonking out at the Capitol, you can find him birding or cycling around Austin.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Award-App Footer

Download our award-winning app