The turning point in Texas homeschooling

In the wee hours of the morning on April 17, 2025, the Texas House of Representatives passed HB3, the “school choice” bill. It was not grass roots. It was not supported by conservatives. Democrats hated it. But Governor Abbott fulfilled his bought-and-paid-for role. And the Republicans dutifully fell in line.

Homeschooling in Texas is about to change, and not for the better, thanks to the passage of “school choice.”

As a homeschooler, I have been against this concept for a decade. I first became aware of it when the Texas Homeschool Coalition announced their support. For my disagreement, my comments on their Facebook page were deleted, and I was blocked from seeing or commenting. That was back in 2016. That was when I became a vocal opponent of school choice and THSC:

• 2017: The (conservative) roots of school choice
• 2017: Does Texas Homeschool Coalition speak for you?
• 2017: Why homeschool parents must be their own guardians of freedom
• 2018: School choice and the 529 savings account

First, the bills had “no strings” attached. Bills were introduced session after session, featuring debit cards with $5,000 per child. With each passing session, a bit of “oversight” was added along the way. Legislators promised that there would be no testing required of homeschoolers who took the money.

But in 2022, Governor Abbott boldly declared on video that there would, indeed, be accountability. Conservatives weren’t surprised, of course. We knew there had to be accountability with public money.

In 2023, the ESA bill continued to fail in the legislature. Abbott called FOUR special sessions to try to make it happen, and it failed.

In 2024, twelve Republican incumbents were ousted by Abbott’s cronies, simply because they did not vote for ESAs. Abbott then proceeded to help new Republicans get elected, funding and promoting their campaigns.

In 2025, Abbott made school choice his number one priority. Despite the glaring evidence that this was a top-down, UN led, lobbyist funded movement, and despite evidence of bad bills in other states, Abbott and the House Republicans shoved it down our throats.

And with dishonest, unrepublican shenanigans, that are too numerous to list (but I promise you, I will try), HB3, “universal school choice” was passed in Texas.

How will the passage of this bill change homeschooling?

Here are the predictions that I (and hundreds of other veteran homeschoolers) made as far back as 10 years ago:

*First, the homeschool ESA recipients will be scrutinized.

*Next, when the state or the populace decide that homeschoolers aren’t “doing it right,” all homeschoolers will be scrutinized.

*There will be calls for more oversight on all homeschoolers in the state.

*Bills will be introduced to impose minimum requirements, assessments, and data collection.

*There may even be bills to impose medical oversight in homes of homeschoolers (like other states have already done).

*Our status as one of the best homeschool states will disappear.

*Homeschool curriculum prices will go up, and some mom-and-pop providers will go out of business, because they can’t compete with the state’s “approved education vendor” coupons.

*Homeschool co-ops that don’t accept ESA money will shrink, while state-funded co-ops will grow.

*ESA homeschoolers will look at private homeschoolers and demand to have the freedoms we have, which will result in the opposite: the free homeschoolers will be affected by the ESA law until homeschooling in Texas is no longer recognizable.

(Here is every blog post I’ve written and every podcast I’ve appeared on talking about school choice.)

But I will not forget. I’ve been a homeschooler in Texas since 1985, first as a child, and for the past 25 years as a mom. I will not forget.

And I hope you won’t, either. Freel free to bookmark this post and fact check it in a few years, because that’s what I’ll be doing. I’ll update regularly as I see the changes happen.

In the meantime, don’t take the bait. It IS a Trojan Horse to control. Listen to my podcast: Why and How to Homeschool Without Government Money.