(Texas Scorecard) – Speaker Dustin Burrows is assuring President Donald Trump that the Texas House will pass school choice legislation this session.
The statement came after Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday to praise the Senate and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for passing Senate Bill 2. Under the current budget proposal, the program would offer education savings accounts of $10,000 annually to up to 100,000 Texas students.
Trump wrote, “The Texas House must now pass School Choice to deliver a gigantic Victory for Texas students and parents,” adding that he would be “watching them closely.”
Burrows responded simply, “We will.”
Both the House and Senate budget proposals currently allocate $1 billion for education savings accounts.
Patrick—who has been critical of Burrows’ ascent to the speakership due to the support he received from Democrats—expressed cautious optimism about the issue.
“Before this legislative session, the Texas Senate passed school choice five separate times, only for parents, senators, and me to watch each bill die in the Texas House. Just this week, the Texas Senate and I passed school choice for the sixth time and sent it to the House,” Patrick wrote on X.
“For the first time in my 10 years as Lt. Governor, Texas has a Speaker of the House who’s committed to passing school choice. This is great news for parents all across Texas. Let’s get it done.”
While the House is expected to introduce its own version of school choice legislation in the coming weeks, some advocates are urging representatives to approve the Senate’s version, which was sent to the House last week.
The House Democrat Caucus—which largely supported Burrows—has been vocal against school choice measures, saying current proposals put “billionaires over students.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, has maintained school choice as an emergency priority for the legislature this session.
“Education excellence is what we’re trying to achieve,” Abbott said at a Parent Empowerment event in Edinburg on Thursday. “We need to ensure that every student gets to find the pathway that’s best for them, and that we make it available for parents to choose the pathway that’s best for their child.”