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The 72-Hour Window: What Rural Texans Need to Know Before the March 11 Voucher Hearing
An update on Texas’s $1 billion voucher plan as Tuesday’s hearing approaches: New data confirms rural Panhandle schools face disproportionate impacts while program benefits primarily flow to existing private school students.
Updated analysis based on March 2025 legislative developments
This article builds on a February 2025 examination of When There’s No Choice: What Vouchers Really Mean for Rural Schools with new legislative details and research findings.
State budget officials now project only 24,500 of Texas’s six million public school students would leave for private options in the program’s first year. Meanwhile, roughly 175,000 current private school students are expected to apply for taxpayer assistance — a 7:1 ratio that confirms what rural advocates have been saying: this program primarily functions as a subsidy for families already in private education rather than creating new opportunities. This projection comes as Senate Bill 2 has already cleared the Senate and House Bill 3 moves to committee hearings on March 11.
