With a highly anticipated special session on school choice legislation expected in October, observers are expressing their thoughts on the likelihood of the Texas House and Senate reaching an agreement.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s staffers said that the governor would likely wait until October — after Attorney General Ken Paxton’s upcoming impeachment trial — to call a special session on school choice, which he had vowed to do after the legislature failed to agree on the scope of a bill establishing education savings accounts.
“Every parent deserves choices about where they will send their child to school. All these parents know this isn’t a Republican issue, it’s not a Democrat issue. This is a civil rights issue,” Gov. Abbott previously said, according to the Texas Observer.
The stakes could be high for some Republican lawmakers in the Texas Legislature, who could draw the ire of the governor for obstructing one of his top policy priorities.
“I definitely think this is going to be a litmus test for Republicans: Is Greg Abbott going to get involved in your primary?” said conservative political consultant Randan Steinhauser, founder of the Texas School Choice Coalition, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Central to the political dynamic at play are 24 House Republicans who have previously stood in opposition to broad school choice legislation. As The Dallas Express reported, such reform has historically been blocked in the House by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans from rural districts.
“You really have to start looking at the House and seeing which of these legislators are vulnerable? And if they don’t do the right thing on this issue, is it time for them to be replaced?” Steinhauser said.
A University of Texas at Austin poll conducted back in June found that 58% of respondents said they either strongly or somewhat support “establishing a voucher, educational saving account (ESA), or other ‘school choice’ program in Texas.”
“There is a group of Republican lawmakers who are otherwise very conservative in the ways that they vote, but who see this as a measure that would take money away from their communities’ public schools,” said Christy Rome, executive director of the anti-school choice organization Texas Schools Coalition, per The 74. “Largely, they don’t have private school options in those communities, so they feel that this is a way in which the state invests in education without benefiting their schools.”
One of the most vocal Texas House members against school choice has been Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian).
“If I have anything to say about it, it’s dead on arrival,” King previously said at an educational panel, The Texas Tribune reported. “It’s horrible for rural Texas. It’s horrible for all of Texas.”
Still, other state lawmakers feel there is enough daylight between the Republican factions in the House to get something on the governor’s desk.
“We either were short on votes because members are just not yet fully supportive of school choice overall, or we’re short on votes as the session came to a close in the regular because the deal points just weren’t satisfactory — and I tend to believe it’s the latter,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), according to San Antonio Express-News.