School Funding
Greg Abbott (R)
Abbott's defining 2025 education legacy is the $1 billion Education Savings Account program he signed at the Governor's Mansion on May 3, 2025 — Senate Bill 2, which gives families roughly $10,000 per child (up to $30,000 for students with disabilities, $2,000 for homeschoolers) toward private-school tuition starting in 2026-27, making it the largest day-one voucher launch in the country. One month later, on June 4, 2025, he signed House Bill 2, an $8.5 billion public-school funding package that included $4.2 billion in permanent teacher and staff raises — the largest teacher-compensation increase in state history — plus money for special education, campus safety, and a $55 bump to the basic allotment. Critics argued the per-student baseline still trailed inflation. On pre-K, Abbott's 2019 HB 3 required full-day pre-K for eligible 4-year-olds and added roughly $835 million in early-education funding.
Gina Hinojosa (D)
Hinojosa has been the Texas House's most visible voucher antagonist, voting against Senate Bill 2 in 2025 — Abbott's signature $1 billion ESA program — and declaring on the committee floor that the bill 'is projected to take billions and billions of more billions this biennium that we could use on our public school students' while 'school districts are having to make tough decisions of closing schools.' She authored the Fully Fund Our Future Act in the 88th Legislature, a $40 billion proposal that would have raised teacher pay by $15,000 and support-staff pay by $5,500, and during HB 2 debate in 2025 pressed TEA Commissioner Mike Morath on class-size waivers and what 'fair' teacher compensation would look like. On the Austin ISD board from 2012 to 2016, she served as president and oversaw the year in which every AISD high school met state accountability standards for the first time, then resigned the presidency in December 2015 to run for HD-49. She has not detailed a specific universal pre-K proposal.
Sources
- Gina Hinojosa for Texas Governor, official campaign priorities page, accessed May 2026. (full list)
- Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 'Abbott signs $1 billion school voucher ESA law,' KUT, May 2, 2025. (full list)
- Texas Tribune, 'Texas public education funding bill, HB 2, explained,' June 4, 2025. (full list)
- Texas Tribune, 'Texas Legislature passes HB 2, $8.5B public school funding bill,' May 29, 2025. (full list)
- Aliyya Swaby, 'Gov. Greg Abbott signs $11.6 billion school finance reform bill into law,' Texas Tribune, June 11, 2019. (full list)
- Brian Lopez, 'Texas school voucher funding fight: Hinojosa says vouchers take billions from public schools,' Texas Tribune, March 31, 2025. (full list)
- Texas AFT, 'This week in the legislature: Let's talk about educator pay raises,' covering Hinojosa's Fully Fund Our Future Act questioning of TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. (full list)
- Austin ISD, 'Gina Hinojosa resigns from AISD Board president office,' Dec. 15, 2015. (full list)
- Austin Chronicle, 'Meet the candidate: Gina Hinojosa,' covering her HD-49 race and AISD board record. (full list)