An alarming number of Texas’ economically disadvantaged urban children are performing below grade level in reading and math and will not graduate high school prepared for success. Offering them Education Savings Accounts modeled after SB 3, which passed the Senate during the 85th Legislature, would improve their educational attainment by giving them access to choice options.

Key Points:

  • Texas’ economically disadvantaged urban children are in a reading and math learning crisis. Sixty-four percent score below grade level in reading, while 59 percent score below grade level in math.
  • Urban children are unnecessarily set up for failure by being assigned—without any alternative—to a traditional public school that is not teaching them how to read or do math.
  • The quality of a child’s education should not depend on his or her parents’ income or zip code.
  • Quality studies show that providing parents of Texas’ economically disadvantaged urban children Education Savings Accounts, modeled after those proposed in SB 3, which passed the Texas Senate in 2017, would improve their educational attainment.
  • ESA funding will give parents the opportunity to choose the education services best suited to their child’s unique needs, including attending an accredited Texas private school.