Texas bill would require schools to fund private schooling of students victimized by school employees

AUSTIN - While Senate Bill 2, which creates a $1 billion school choice program in Texas, has caught a lot of attention around the state, a different kind of school choice plan has flown under the legislative radar, until now.

Senate Bill 1832 involves children who are criminally victimized by a school employee.

The bill requires school districts to allow a student to transfer to another public school and, if necessary, pay for that student's tuition to a private school.

Senate Bill 1832

The bill was written by Republican State Senator Tan Parker of Flower Mound.

On Thursday, he said the bill targets situations where there is sexual misconduct, grooming and even a sexual relationship with a student.

SB 1832 passed by a 19 to 12 vote.

What they're saying:

"I also want to note that Senate Bill 1832 only applies to fully adjudicated cases. For a criminal case, this means a conviction. For a misconduct case, this means the case is adjudicated by TEA," Parker explained.

The potential cost of the legislation was raised by Democrat State Senator Jose Menendez of San Antonio.

"If we had a million kids potentially avail themselves of your bill if they were to choose private school, that could be a cost to the state of $9 billion. I don't believe we've even allocated $9 billion to our public school system, to TEA. How would they pay for it?" asked Menendez.

Parker did not agree with the scenario suggested by Menendez and offered a counterpoint.

"These are real crimes. If something really occurred in a school, frankly, we've got much bigger issues and concerns than the dollars. We've got a cultural crisis, we have a morality crisis, we have all kinds of issues in that school if we are seeing a rash of activity in a particular location and that TEA and all of us elected to serve need to address. Much bigger than any funding challenge and hypothetical scenario," said Parker.

What's next:

One more vote is needed to send Senate Bill 1832 to the Texas House.