UPDATE: At 5:46 p.m. Monday, Scott Braddock of Quorum Report released a news bulletin from the Texas House of Representatives stating: “Some House Republicans support putting vouchers on the ballot this fall. QR has learned there may be as many as 85 R and D votes in the House for that; Abbott is privately telling members such a move would be unconstitutional, per sources. But there is precedent for it.
“Despite his public insistence that there are enough votes in the Texas House to pass “school choice,” Republican sources on Monday indicated Gov. Greg Abbott is privately furious with some GOP lawmakers who want to make changes to his signature initiative.
“Those possible changes include a provision that, if adopted, could trigger a statewide vote of Texans on the issue of school vouchers. There’s also been more grumbling in the past couple weeks – even from some House GOP supporters of the voucher plan – who are argue this entire process so far should have been handled in a much more transparent way.”
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ORIGINAL STORY
Texas is poised to radically change the educational landscape of the state this week, as Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign for school vouchers is scheduled for a vote in the House.
Opponents of the measure are expected to travel to Austin again this week in order to protest the controversial measure.
According to information from the Legislature’s website, Senate Bill 2 — commonly known as the Voucher Bill — creates an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that allows families to use public funds for private or homeschool expenses.
That legislation cleared the Senate in early February, about two weeks after the 89th legislative session began.
The corresponding House legislation is HB3, was still in committee when House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced the Public Education Committee would send Senate Bill 2 to the House floor for a vote, which was later reset to allow time to study changes to SB 2 and to the school funding bill, House Bill 2.
House Bill 2 focuses on public-school finance and teacher pay, with significant revisions to funding formulas, increasing the basic allotment-per-student and expanding teacher-incentive programs. The bill also adds more grant funding for various school initiatives and provisions related to school safety and security.
Last week, HB2 was also sent from Committe to Calendars to be scheduled for a floor vote on Wednesday.
Included in the Budget passed by the Texas House on Friday, is $51 billion allocated toward property-tax relief and $134 billion allocated for public education.
While polling has consistently shown a lack of public support for vouchers, the governor has received millions of dollars from wealthy Texans — and out-of-state donors — to advance his agenda.
According to donation reports, Abbott’s two largest donors are Pennsylvania’s Jeffry Yass, who gave the governor $12,250,000, and Texas oil magnate S. Javaid Anwar who’s given almost $6 million.
Abbott’s push for vouchers became quite contentious after four special sessions called specifically to pass the legislation failed to yield the governor’s desired result in 2023.
Read the Texas Tribune’s story on the history of vouchers here.
Following the special sessions, Abbott promised to use his multi-million-dollar war chest to fund primary challengers against 14 state representatives who didn’t vote for his signature legislation, including San Angelo’s Rep. Drew Darby (TX-72) who faced-off against challenger Stormy Bradley in March 2024.
According to financial reports, Bradley, a business owner and trustee of Coahoma ISD, received $677,158.74 from Gov. Abbott to help her unseat Darby.
Abbott said he now has the votes in the Texas House to advance the legislation, which he is waiting to sign into law.
