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AUSTIN (KXAN) — A brainstorming session happened for hours Monday at the Texas Capitol so that state lawmakers could find out where to look for ideas on crafting private school subsidy legislation, a policy goal that has eluded top Republican leaders.

The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Public Education held a hearing to discuss how to move forward with possibly implementing education savings accounts (ESAs) during next year’s regular legislative session. The panel heard first from witnesses who come from some of the 13 states that now offer public dollars through ESAs to help families cover expenses from private or homeschooling.

Indiana served as the first example. Christina Kaetzel, the executive director of the Indiana Education Scholarship Account Program, testified about how her state now provides up to $20,000 for students with disabilities and their siblings who fall within a certain income level. This became law in 2021, and so far 555 students received the assistance during the 2023-2024 school year.

“The ESA grant must be used on private school tuition, curriculum, services, therapies, transportation, training programs and camps and assessments,” Kaetzel told the panel Monday afternoon.

Jonathan Covey, the policy director for the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said he hopes state lawmakers will think more broadly.

MOST READ: Texas Lottery Commission ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place,’ Sunset Advisory Commission says “We support universal school choice,” Covey said. “We also support some sort of prioritization method so that low-income and vulnerable demographics can get what they need.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, posted on X accusing the state’s top Republican leaders of saving a $32 billion surplus to pay for a voucher-like program during next year’s session. During the hearing, she said testimony from the invited witnesses lacked much evidence to show the benefits of enacting such a program here.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a video posted Monday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel. In the video, he briefed the president on the front-line situation.

“The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” Syrskyi said.

Russian forces are still scrambling to respond to the surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.

CNN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed Kyiv’s troops are fighting inside Russia, days into the surprise Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region that has become a major embarrassment for the Kremlin.

“Ukraine is proving that it really knows how to restore justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation on Saturday, thanking “every unit” of Ukraine’s armed forces for making it possible “to push the war out into the aggressor’s territory.”

The statement marked the first time Zelensky officially acknowledged the incursion, which took by surprise both Russia and Ukraine’s allies. Ukrainian officials have for days remained tight-lipped about the operation, even as photographs, videos and firsthand reports of Ukrainian soldiers inside Russia started to emerge.

Moscow has been scrambling to contain the attack. Russian authorities imposed a sweeping counter-terror operation in Kursk and two other border regions and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from Kursk.

Now into its sixth day, the attack on Kursk is a significant development in the more than two-year old conflict.

Debby finally moved out of the U.S. on Saturday after the storm spent the better part of week unleashing tornadoes and flooding, damaging homes and taking lives as it moved up the East Coast after first arriving in Florida as a hurricane.

Debby’s last day over the U.S. before blowing into Canada inundated south-central New York and north-central Pennsylvania with rain, prompting evacuations and rescues by helicopter. The post-tropical cyclone continued dropping rain on New England and southern Quebec, Canada, on Friday night with conditions expected to improve Saturday morning as the system continued moving northeast.

Some of the worst flash flooding in New York on Friday happened in villages and hamlets in a largely rural area south of the Finger Lakes.

In Steuben County, which borders Pennsylvania, officials ordered the evacuation of the towns of Jasper, Woodhull and part of Addison, and said people were trapped as floodwaters made multiple roads impassable. By mid-evening, some of those orders were lifted as threat of severe flooding passed.