Lambert backs $7.7B school bill, explains why he voted for vouchers

BIG COUNTRY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – As the Texas legislative session barrels toward key deadlines, District 71 State Representative Stan Lambert says lawmakers are making critical progress on major public education bills — some of which stirred strong reactions across the state.

Two major bills — House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 — have now passed in both chambers. HB 2 focuses on public school funding, while SB 2 includes a controversial education savings account (ESA) program, often referred to as a school voucher system. Despite concerns from rural lawmakers about the potential impact of vouchers, Lambert says the most important takeaway is the $7.7 billion investment in public education.

“We wanted to make sure that before we took up and discussed the voucher bill, the ESA and SB2, we had made strong commitments and a strong investment in public education,” Lambert explained.

That basic allotment, increased by nearly $400 per student based on Weighted Average Daily Attendance, now has built-in inflation protection. Lambert noted that about 40% of the increase is now statutorily dedicated to teacher pay and raises.

“There were some additional measures to make sure that even if enrollment drops in some of our schools, which is what we have seen in the last few years, those school districts will continue to be funded. We’ve ensured, and we have put into statute now, once the governor signs the bill, that those monies will continue to be invested in public education, in addition to the ESA voucher program,” Lambert shared.

Though Lambert previously opposed ESAs, he voted in favor after key amendments were added to protect rural schools.

“It was very hard for me, because I have been a very staunch opponent of the conceptual idea of using public dollars to fund private education. But again, once the amendments were accepted by the governor’s staff and the Senate and our House public education committee chairman, then I felt obligated, once those amendments were accepted and put on the bill, I was obligated to support the legislation,” Lambert shared.

He explained that the $1 billion voucher program is divided into tiers—or “buckets”—starting with the neediest students.

“The lowest bucket is those families with the greatest need, in other words, the lowest income levels, as well as those students with disabilities and special educational needs. Then the buckets increase a little bit up to the final bucket, which is the 20% that basically is the universal one, where any family can apply,” Lambert explained.

He emphasized strict guidelines for how voucher funds can be spent.

“There’s still a lot of a lot of things that are restricted, as far as how the money can be spent, how if you’re a homeschool kid and your parents want to take you on a ski trip and use the $2,000 voucher, you can’t do that. It’s got to be used for tuition, for educational supplies. There is just a list of things there that will make sure that the money is being used effectively and efficiently, and will be accountable as far as the taxpayers’ funding of that program.”

Senator Ted Cruz recently stated that competition from voucher programs will improve public schools. Lambert agreed that the competition can improve education, though he believes this is more of an urban issue.

“I think competition can improve and make us better. It gives us a kind of insight as to what others are doing, how they’re doing it, and how effective they are,” said Lambert. “I really think that that though, in West Texas and certainly in our rural areas of the state, we’re not going to see as much impact necessarily, because I do think that this is more really of an urban issue, a metropolitan major, major city type issue, versus what’s happening in our rural schools. That’s why I’ve been such a strong opponent of a voucher program, because I think that it doesn’t really impact what’s happening in our schools like Abilene and like Wiley and so forth. While I’m a big supporter of private education, I think we have some private schools in West Texas that are doing a very good job. So I’m not trying to say one is better than the other.”

Lambert also weighed in on testing reform, saying the STAAR test may soon be on its way out.

“The fact that we put so much emphasis and so much weight on one day, one test, that’s not fair to our students, it’s not fair to our teachers. So, anything we can do to try to move away from that kind of system where we put so much weight on one day of testing,” Lambert said. “I think that’s what we’ll see come forward as a result of House Bill 4, which has not been on the floor yet… that will be the way that we address the elimination of the STAAR test and introduce some type of norm referenced testing so that all of our public education, and to some degree, our private schools as well, will be held accountable to. That way, we have at least some metrics, some way of evaluation that makes good sense, and makes us be able to at least have data moving forward as we add an additional program that’s going to use taxpayer dollars to fund private schools.”

Just weeks ago, Lambert joined a bill with ACU alum Representative Caroline Fairly — House Bill 1481 — which limits digital device use during school hours.

“There’s way too much opportunity for students to pull out their cell phone, to be playing games or to be engaging with social media. I know that’s a very controversial issue, because I know parents are concerned about safety and how they could communicate with their child if they needed to, on an as-needed basis,” explained Lambert. “I went back and watched the layout of representative Fairley’s bill in state affairs, it was a pretty lengthy layout where the idea that these devices would not be allowed in classrooms there, there will be some funding that could allow for some type of apparatus in the classroom for those phones to be placed in so they’re going to be within reach if there’s some type of situation where parents do need to reach their children.”

He’s also proud of legislation moving forward to strengthen Texas’s workforce, especially a bill supporting Texas State Technical College (TSTC).

“We were very instrumental and very involved in making sure that Texas State Technical College is going to receive a large endowment that will allow them to expand their campuses across the state. We know how good and effective TSTC is in workforce education, and so we’ve carried that bill through the House. It was just approved the other day with 129 votes in the House. So it’ll move to the Senate now,” Lambert added. “We’re excited about what’s happening in terms of not just that bill, but many other bills that are addressing the workforce shortages that we have throughout the state… We talked a lot about this over the last interim, about the workforce shortage and how that would be a very significant thing that we would need to address in this legislative session. So excited to see those bills moving forward, and we’re looking forward to the next 32 days here in Austin.”

With the session’s final weeks approaching, Lambert said lawmakers are bracing for long nights and tight deadlines.

“This is a really critical time in the legislature. We’re getting into some deadlines as far as when bills can be heard, how many more calendars we’re going to actually see, and we’re going to start seeing a backup in terms of the number of bills that are going to be coming out of calendars. There’s going to be some long, long nights here in the Capitol, which is fine, that’s part of what we signed up to do. I’m very proud of the fact that most of the legislation that we’ve focused on this session is moving forward.”