Abbott’s school voucher plan now has more than enough support
DALLAS - Gov. Greg Abbott is ready to push his school voucher plan again. This time, he has a lot more support.
The Texas governor is celebrating the fact that every candidate he backed in the Texas House general election won.
He discussed school voucher plans for the next legislative session in January while visiting Kingdom Life Academy, a Christian private school in Tyler on Wednesday.
Abbott said there are now more than enough votes to pass school choice in Texas, allowing taxpayer dollars to help parents pay for private school tuition.
"Our job as Texas leaders is to make sure that we're going to provide the most effective pathway options for every child in our state to be able to achieve the education that's going to be best for them and to allow their parents to be able to make that decision," said Abbott.
While Republicans held a majority in the Texas Legislature before this election cycle, many rural Republicans and Democrats banded together to vote against Abbott’s plan during the last session.
"I made sure that we would elect Republicans to the Texas House of Representatives in sufficient numbers to be able to pass a school choice plan. Just like the Texas Senate has passed many times. With the results that came in last night, there was a tidal wave of support for those House candidates that I supported. And we have more than enough members of the Texas House of Representatives elected last night, to make sure that school choice is going to pass," Abbott said.
"As some people have debated the issue of the past session, over the past decade, they make it sound like you can't have both school choice and robust public schools. That's completely false. The reality is, we can have the best public schools in America and also have school choice at the very same time, it does not have to be one of the other, and it's wrong to pit one against the other."
Abbott maintains that his plan will not force public schools to lose money.
"We will have separate pots of money: one for public schools — which we will fully fund teacher pay raises, which we will fully fund — and then a separate pot for school choice."
Opponents of his plan, like Democrat State Rep. James Talarico, point out that many rural areas do not have private schools where students could take advantage of those vouchers.
"The vast majority of the money will end up going to wealthy families who are already sending their kids to private school," he said. "It is welfare for the wealthy. And if it passes in Texas, it will be a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top."
Talarico calls vouchers a scam.
"Because just like any scam, they sound good… until you read the fine print," he said. "And then you realize the scam is ripping you off. And the cost of the voucher doesn’t even cover the full cost of tuition at most private schools in Texas."
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The Texas Senate appears to have the votes needed to pass school choice, approving legislation in 2023. But that year, Abbott failed multiple times to get school voucher legislation passed in the House.
The governor has previously said he will not sign a school funding bill if vouchers are not attached.
In the Texas House District 80 race, former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin declared victory over his Democratic opponent. District 80 borders Mexico. McLaughlin will be the first Republican to represent that district in more than 20 years.
In Corpus Christi, Republican Denise Villalobos flipped Texas House District 34. That gives Republicans control of at least 88 of the 150 seats in the Texas House.
In the Texas Senate, Republican Adam Hinojosa is beating incumbent Democrat Morgan Lamantia with over 95% of the votes counted. It’s the only battleground of the upper chamber.
The next legislative session begins January 14, 2025.