The Texas House passed school choice. What comes next?
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Thursday afternoon it was official, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) are coming to Texas.
“There being 86 ayes and 68 nays, SB 2 is finally passed,” Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows announced before a smattering of cheers rang through the chamber.
While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — who allegedly threatened Republican members to vote for the bill — eagerly awaits the final bill to reach his desk, there’s still one final step in the Legislative process to close discrepancies between the versions of Senate Bill 2 passed by the Texas House and Texas Senate.
The main differences
The Senate’s version of SB 2 prioritized including as many middle-class families as possible by only having one “low-income” requirement. To be classified as low-income under the Senate’s version of the bill, households would have to make less than five times the Federal Poverty Line (FPL).
Using 2025’s FPL, a family of four making under $160,750 would be eligible to qualify as “low-income,” putting themselves in a lottery with all other “low-income” families and families of students with disabilities. The first round of families admitted to the program would draw from this lottery until 80% of the funds are disbursed. The last 20% of funds would be drawn from a lottery available to all students.
The House’s version is geared more towards low-income families, setting four prioritization buckets. The first bucket would be families who make under five times the FPL whose student has a disability. The second bucket would be families who are at or below two times the FPL, or $64,300 a year for a family of four. The third bucket would be for families between two times the FPL and five times the FPL, and the last bucket is open enrollment. Under HB 3, everyone who applied for bucket one has to be admitted before funds can start being given to bucket two, and so on.
| Priority Ranking | Senate’s Version of SB 2 | House’s Version of SB 2 |
| 1 | Lottery for students with disabilities OR whose family income is at or below 500% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL). Lottery ends when 80% of funds are dispersed. | Students with disabilities whose family income is at or below 500% of the FPL. |
| 2 | Lottery for all students until the remainder of funds are fully dispersed. | Students whose family income is at or below 200% of the FPL. |
| 3 | Students whose family income is above 200% and below 500% of the FPL. | |
| 4 | Students whose family income is above 500% of the FPL. |
The Senate’s version of SB 2 also differs from the House in how much money recipients are granted. Their version gives $10,000 a year per student who attends an accredited private school in Texas, increased to $11,500 for students with disabilities and decreased to $2,000 for students who are homeschooled.
Instead of giving families a flat rate, the House’s version would award admitted families with 85% of the estimated amount of funding each public-school student gets if their child enrolls in an accredited private school. According to the Legislative Budget Board’s (LBB) fiscal note, this amount would likely equal $10,330 per student in 2027 — increasing to $10,899 per student in 2030. This number would increase for students with disabilities based on the public school disability funding formula, while admitted home school families would also be eligible for up to $2,000.
Meeting in the middle
To determine which version should be sent to the governor’s desk, both chambers of the legislature will send a five “conferees” for a conference committee.
“Those 10 members — five House (and) five Senate — will work together, being led by the bill authors, to bring solution to the differences between the bill,” Former Speaker of the Texas House Dennis Bonnen said. “You have to stay within the confines of what the House and the Senate passed. The conferees have to basically decide, ‘Are we taking the house language (or) are we taking the Senate language?’ when it’s in disagreement. They’re not allowed to say, we’ll just make it all up now and do whatever we want.”
Some bills never have the full meeting.
“Most conference committees, the two bill authors from the House and Senate meet with each other and work out differences,” Former Democratic Texas House Rep. Mark Strama said.
The bills that don’t go to conference are usually on the smaller side, Strama said. However, if the Texas Senate wants to take the exact version the Texas House passed, they could do so without a conference committee.
“If there even is a conference committee — which would be unusual to not have one, but I think there’s a chance they won’t — but even if there is, I think you’re going to find that the House had been respectfully bringing these ideas to the Senate leadership, to Sen. [Brandon] Creighton (R-Conroe) for his consideration,” Bonnen said. “[They did that] so that there would not be significant contention, debate, discussion in a conference, and frankly, for the goal of getting the bill to the governor’s desk as soon as possible.”
Rejecting a conference committee would also speed up the pace of legislation.
“That gives the Republican majority greater control over the process. It eliminates the risk that the Democrats are able to exploit the calendar and use time to try to kill the bill,” Strama said. “Strategically, you’d have to tip your hat to that. That wouldn’t be a bad idea for them.”
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