Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law Saturday that qualifies more than 5 million students to use state funds for private schools, a watershed in the conservative movement to remake public education in the United States.

Texas was allocating $1 billion to provide payments to parents in the first two years of the program. This is the 16th state that qualifies all students for public funding for private education.

"Today is the climax of a movement that has swept across our state and our country," Abbott said at a signing ceremony at the governor's mansion. "This day has come and parents choose the best school for their children."

The so-called universal school selection programs are all in states whose legislature is dominated by Republicanism, who have criticized public schools for instilling children with liberal ideology for years.

Advocates say school vouchers will hand over control of children's education into parents' hands. Opponents say they waste money from public schools, benefiting wealthy children primarily. More than one million U.S. students use state funds or benefit from tax credits, according to Edchoice, an advocacy group that supports vouchers. The new Texas law means that all 5.3 million children and high schools in the state are eligible for credentials, far exceeding other U.S. states. Texas has the country's second largest public education system. According to federal data, about 50 million students are taught in public schools in the United States. Donald Trump signed an execution order in January directing the Education Department to prioritize funding for federal selection programs and guiding states how to use federal grants to support private and religious schools.

Trump strongly supports the Texas bill and repeatedly urges lawmakers to pass it. Now, most Texas students are eligible for up to $10,000 of up to $10,000 to attend private schools starting in the 2026-27 school year. Private students are required to receive nationally recognized standardized examinations and conduct annual audits of schools receiving vouchers. The spending on the voucher program is no more than 20%, which can be attributed to 500% or more families that create federal poverty restrictions, which equals about $160,000 in household income for a family of four.

Supporters have pushed Texas school coupons for more than 30 years. Until this year, Democratic opposition allied with rural Republicans, citing concerns that private school funding would deprive private school town public areas.

Abbott organized pro-school Republicans, who challenged the vote in last year's election. His efforts helped 15 current Republican House members.

“No other governor has led the school choice like Governor Abbott,” said Jorge Borrego, director of education policy at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Borrego noted that Abbott also pushed the legislature toward funding for public schools. Another bill passed by the Texas Capitol sits before the Senate and will raise $700 million in funding for public schools over the next two years.

Libby Cohen, executive director of Rise Hand Texas, said the new funding will surely be welcomed, an educational advocacy group that has long opposed vouchers.

"But the importance of keeping context is that public schools can only keep up with inflation since 2019, and they only need $2 billion in new school funding," she said.

Texas ranks 47th in spending per student, according to the National Education Association’s annual report released this week.

Schools in Texas receive funding based on the number of students they have, which is typical of students throughout the United States. Cohen said that if public schools throw students to private educators because of vouchers, they will lose money.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers’ Federation, said the Trump administration “threatened to cut funding for students who need it most” by withholding federal funds from schools engaged in diversified, equitable and inclusive work.

Texas law will send “billions of dollars to private schools that can choose their education,” she said.

Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center for Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the push for the universal voucher system in conservative states is more worrying than Trump’s efforts to shut down the Department of Education.

He said voucher payments rarely pay the full cost of private schools, meaning only wealthy families can participate. “This could mean we end up with a very layered school system where people who are able to pay the difference are in a wealthy private system, while the public school system is collapsed.”

In a joint statement on the IQ of the Conservative Heritage Foundation, Lindsey Burke, its Center for Education Policy Director and Jason Bedrick, research fellow, said the law “enables families to choose a learning environment that best matches their values ​​and their children.”