Education savings accounts currently are under consideration in the Texas Legislature, and Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, told the Lone Star Standard he is "cautiously optimistic" some version of school choice will be passed this year.

Roberts previously was the CEO at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an Austin-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute. Roberts focuses on education, health care, border security and election integrity. He hosts "The Kevin Roberts Show," a podcast on U.S. politics and culture. 

Roberts said school choice has gained in popularity over the last 15 or 20 years and is picking up momentum. He added that the momentum was "accelerated" by the COVID-19 pandemic when students were doing remote learning.

"[Parents realized] the educational quality was not great," he told Lone Star Standard. "What the students in America are learning in terms of reading and writing and math and history and civics is deplorable." 

According to EdWeek, education savings accounts (ESAs) are growing in popularity in the United States. These accounts give families access to public per-pupil funds, which can be used to pay for tuition to private schools, homeschooling supplies, curriculum materials, and educational therapy services. 

The accounts began in Arizona in 2011 and originally were limited to students with disabilities, low-income students and students in failing in school. Following the pandemic, they have grown in popularity with more states opting for universal programs, allowing any student to use them. As of March 2023, 11 states have ESA programs or expansions to previous ESA policies.

Roberts said his Heritage colleague Jay Greene is a leading education reform researcher who analyzes the correlation between policy and bills passed by legislatures and the educational attainment. 

He pointed out that Green has proven in states such as Arkansas, Arizona, and many others that offer school choice, "there is an increase in educational attainment, not just by those students who are recipients of that, but also an improvement in public school quality. 

"It really is a policy that lifts all boats," Roberts said. "The particular mechanism within the broad options of school choice that offers the best gains in educational attainment happens to be education savings accounts."

Although several measures have been introduced in Texas, the main bills will allow students in the state to have an account in his or her name with the Comptroller's Office and parents will have control over the funds, Roberts said. 

He added that ESAs could be used for more than one educational option, including private school, home school and even public school add-on options, such as tutoring. They also can be used for a range of services for special needs students. 

Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who chairs the Senate Education Committee, has filed Senate Bill 8, which aims to establish the "Texas Parental Bill of Rights" and create an ESA program. 

Under this program, students could receive up to $8,000, which would be overseen by the comptroller of public accounts in Texas. The bill includes provisions to protect smaller school districts from losing enrollment and mandates that no teaching on gender identity is allowed. Additionally, parents must be informed of any changes to their child's mental, emotional or physical health.

According to the Parent Empowerment Coalition, a project of TPPF, "Universal parental choice means giving every parent access to the learning environment that best serves their children. All parents should have the widest possible choices, be it traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools or home school." 

ESAs can be beneficial as they "improve proficiency and education attainment," according to studies conducted over the last 25 years. The coalition calls ESAs "digital wallets" for parents to use to customize their child's education. 

Roberts said ESAs have been shown to improve student achievement even in public schools.

"I'm a public school guy. I've only ever attended public schools," he said. "I want public schools to flourish, and yet I also know that we all are better when there is some competition. 

"I think that's what motivated my colleague Jay Green to start this series of studies that showed that where you had pretty extensive school choice programs ... the students who remain in public schools see their academic achievement go up because of the nature of competition," Roberts added. "And that's obviously good because that's from this educator you're talking to right now."

Roberts says he's 'cautiously optimistic' some version of school choice will happen this year and attributed Texas' not passing school choice in the past to opposition. 

"Since I started first started looking at polls of school choice opinion among Texans 10 years ago, the trend has been upward," he said. "It's remained constant among white parents, whereas you've really seen a lot of growth in support to majority support among Hispanic parents, Black parents, Asian-American parents. 

"Literally every demographic in Texas has majority support for school choice," he added. "As my friend and political mentor, former Sen. Phil Gramm, likes to say, never underestimate the power of an idea whose time has come. If polls are any indication, it looks like school choice is an idea whose time has come."

Roberts said three-term Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has spoken often about school choice, "but he's never been this vocal and this politically invested in it."