Updating my previous post...

HB 2465 has jumped from wallowing in committee to "reported favorably as substituted" by the Public Education Committee.

To the uninitiated:

The bill would create a scholarship program for public school students to attend private schools. It defines eligibility of students to include only a subset of students in certain large school districts that have more than 40,000 students enrolled and have a majority of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. To be eligible, the students must be from a family with income no more than 200% of the level that qualifies for the free or reduced lunch program, resides in an eligible district, and attended a public school in the preceding full semester.

The scholarship amount is the total state and local funding for maintenance and operations per student in the preceding school year from all sources excepting the available school fund, federal funds and the special education allotment. The Comptroller is charged with establishing rules for distribution of payments for both public and private schools. The Comptroller issues a scholarship certificate to the parents of an eligible child, which may only be redeemed by a participating private school. The Comptroller is charged with distributing the per capita allocation to the district of residence, 10% of the scholarship amount to the district of residence, and 90% of the scholarship (or a lesser amount) to the private school.

Private schools must test students annually either with the TAKS test or a norm-referenced instrument, and must publish the aggregate results. School districts must provide eligible children transportation to the public school they would have attended. Students attending private schools on scholarship must be counted in the attendance of the district of residence.

Beginning in 2006, any school district may opt into the program.