Governor Greg Abbott just signed Texas’ first school choice bill into law, giving parents more control over their kids’ education. The new law creates Education Savings Accounts, using taxpayer funds to help low-income families afford private schools or other options outside of public schools. After more than 20 years of pushback, the bill finally passed thanks to Abbott’s strong support and the election of a new House Speaker who made it a priority.

The Center Square reports:

Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday signed Texas’ first school choice bill into law.

Abbott signed “the largest day one school choice program in the United States of America,” he said surrounded by children and state lawmakers.

“Today is the culmination of a movement that has swept across our state and across our country,” Abbott said. “A movement driven by parents … who wanted a better education option” for their children, describing examples. One was mother Hillary Hickland, “who was angry that a woke agenda was being forced on her daughter in a public school and that drove her to run for and win a seat in the Texas legislature,” he said. Abbott endorsed and campaigned for Hickland, who was in attendance at the signing.

“The movement was driven by activists and public policy advocates across the state fueled by a vision for an education system that levels the playing field for parents and expands opportunity for our great children,” Abbott continued. “A movement driven by families who shared my vision – that it is time that we put our children on a pathway to having the number one ranked education system in the United States of America knowing that school choice is part of the formula of achieving that mission.”

He also said he’s traveled across the state “talking about school choice for more than half a decade and … met with thousands of families who have longed for education freedom. These families, and thousands more, have been yearning to choose a school that best fits their child. Now they have that option.”

When Abbott ran for reelection in 2022, he “promised school choice for the families of Texas,” he said. “Today, we delivered on that promise.”

The bill creates the state’s first Education Savings Account program to provide taxpayer-funded subsidies for primarily low-income families of roughly $10,000 per student.

Both the Texas Senate and House budgets allocate $1 billion for the program to support roughly 100,000 students, prioritizing low-income and special needs students, The Center Square reported. The savings accounts can be used by parents to send their children to the school of their choice, including private schools.

For more than 20 years, Democrats and Texas House Republicans have opposed a taxpayer-funded subsidy to allow families to send their child to a private school of their choice, arguing funds would be taken away from public schools and that taxpayer money should not fund private school education.

While the Texas Senate has passed a bill creating an Education Savings Account for several legislative sessions in a row, the bill always died in the Republican-controlled House – until now.

The tide turned after Abbott campaigned for 16 House Republican candidates who challenged incumbents who opposed a bill he championed in the last legislative session. Another five Republicans who opposed the bill didn’t run for reelection last year. Abbott’s endorsed Republican challengers won their primaries and runoff elections, vowing to vote for the state’s first ESA program.

The tide also turned after the Texas House elected a new speaker, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who vowed that the ESA bill would pass the House, which it did on April 17. Burrows also traveled with Abbott statewide promoting the bill, pledging multiple times on social media that it would pass, The Center Square reported.

Burrows thanked members of the Texas House for voting for the bill, saying, “they knew school choice was the moral thing to do. They knew it was the right thing to give children opportunities to go to the place that it’s in their best interest. They knew it was the principled thing to do, that competition makes all things better. That is what America was founded upon. I do believe the work is not done. We have to make sure this is not only the biggest school choice [program] in history but the best.”

A new bill in Illinois, SB 2413, would create a state-run Division of Paid Family and Medical Leave. To pay for it, workers would see a 1.12% tax taken from every paycheck. Critics are calling it a “jobs tax,” warning it could hurt workers, small businesses, and open the door to costly lawsuits. The bill is moving quickly and faces a key vote in the Illinois Senate on May 9.

The Center Square reports:

A small business advocate says a paid leave proposal in the Illinois Senate would be a direct tax on workers and employers.

State Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago, proposed creating the Division of Paid Family and Medical Leave within the Illinois Department of Labor with Senate Bill 2413.

Noah Finley is the Illinois state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.

“Senate Bill 2413 is, in essence, a jobs tax. It’s going to be a direct tax on workers and employers in Illinois,” Finley told The Center Square.

Finley said the measure would take money from employee paychecks to form a new state agency.

“This creates a state-run program that would provide up to 27 weeks of paid leave, depending upon circumstances, for a wide variety of situations,” Finley explained.

The proposed Division of Paid Family and Medical Leave would be charged with the administration of a paid family and medical leave insurance program under the direction of a deputy director.

In a video post on X, former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, said SB 2413 would impose a 1.12% tax on employee paychecks.

“It goes to a state-managed paid leave program, and then workers are given up to 18 weeks of paid family or medical leave each year, plus up to nine extra weeks for pregnancy,” Ives said.

“As an example, a worker making $100,000 will have the employer and worker pay in a total of $1,120, split 60-40 employer to worker. That money will go to a state-run fund to hand out paid leave to people who qualify for it. Not for me or my husband necessarily, but people the state says get the leave,” Ives added in a statement to The Center Square. “It’s not connected to the individual, it’s aggregated for the general population who applies for it. The tax is progressive with incomes up to double the Social Security base, which is $352,000 right now taxed, but benefits paid out at a capped rate much lower than what wealthier people pay in at. In other words, the middle and higher income folks will pay in a lot more than they get out if they even use the fund.”

Ives said SB 2413 is bad on multiple levels.

“The last thing you want is the state touching anything that is a paid benefit to you, because you know it’s going to be mismanaged,” Ives said.

Finley said the bill would be a tax on jobs.

“When we are already struggling to employ Illinois workers, the last thing we need to do is add another tax, another barrier to hiring people. We should instead be making it easier to hire people in this state,” Finley said.

Finley cited data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, which indicates slow job growth for the state in most categories outside of government.

According to Finley, the smallest employers would suffer the most under SB 2413. He said the bill would also expose employers to potential lawsuits.

“Under this legislation, outside interest groups can actually sue employers if they think that the employers are not complying fully with the law,” Finley said.

SB 2413 currently has a third reading deadline of May 9 in the Illinois Senate.