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This article is part of The 74’s EDlection 2024 coverage, which examines the candidates’ education policies and how they could impact America’s education system after the 2024 election. Masu.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who for years withheld tax dollars from families for private school tuition, now appears to have enough legislative support to move forward.
Multiple Republican wins in the Texas House on Tuesday would expand the party’s existing majority and give Mr. Abbott an estimated 87 of the 150 seats in the House. When lawmakers reconvene in January, he may finally have the votes he needs to introduce a bill that would provide universal vouchers, or education savings accounts. This proposal has been rejected by many Democrats and local Republicans in previous Congresses.
“Frankly, I was a little surprised that Mr. Abbott was able to pull this off,” said John Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Democratic seats in Corpus Christi and Uvalde have flipped, and Republicans enjoy an 87-63 edge in the House. “At the very least, Congress is likely to pass some form of education savings account plan,” he said, to help families cover tuition and other costs.
Taylor added that San Antonio’s two U.S. House districts nearly flipped from Republican to Democratic, but each fell within about four points, giving the seat to pro-ESA Republicans.
Final battle over ESA in Texas as Abbott seeks to oust conservative opponents
Mr. Abbott first began promoting school choice in 2017 and has been actively fighting for it ever since. In 2023, he called lawmakers into four special sessions to pass a school choice bill, among other measures, that proposed giving students about $10,500 a year under the oversight of the state auditor.
He has also spent the past year working to oust lawmakers who opposed his proposal to provide ESAs to all students, not just those from low-income families.
Deep-funded Abbott targets ESA enemies
Late last year, Mr. Abbott launched an aggressive campaign against members of his own party who stand in his way, viewing them as weak on key issues such as border security and property tax relief. He was backed by deep donors and a political action committee that poured millions of dollars into state elections.
Jeff Yass, a known school choice advocate and investor in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, has donated more than $12 million to this political cycle, while Las Vegas Sands casino owner Miriam Yass Mr. Adelson spent about $13 million to form the pair. They are residents of Pennsylvania and Nevada, respectively, and are Texas’ two largest political donors.
Republican groups have rallied millions to defeat ESA critics. Their target: Republicans.
Last spring, the effort helped persuade voters to unseat eight House Republicans who had blocked the ESA. One of them, U.S. Rep. Steve Allison of San Antonio, said in a September interview with The 74 that Texas families already have access to many options, from magnet schools to charters to public education subsidy programs that admit students in early grades. He said he opposes Abbott’s plan because of the options available. High-performing schools transfer to higher-performing schools. He said lawmakers have approved countless programs in their districts that “pile choice upon choice.”
Abbott is already on a victory lap. “Tonight, every candidate I supported in the Texas House of Representatives general election won,” he wrote on social media site There are enough votes in the state to pass school choice.”
Kathryn Munar, director of policy and advocacy at EdChoice, said Tuesday’s Texas election results were “an important victory for school choice advocates and a continued push for policies that prioritize parental empowerment and educational freedom.” It’s showing momentum.”
Texas is “ready to expand opportunities for students and their families, ensuring they have access to a wide range of educational options that best fit their needs,” she said. This change reflects a broader recognition of the importance of individualized education and the belief that every child has the right to the opportunity to grow in an environment that suits them. ”
How local Republicans derailed Texas’ school voucher plan
“It couldn’t have been a better night” for Abbott, said Mark P. Jones, a political scientist at Rice University.
The question now, he said, is not whether school choice will be successful in Texas in 2025. How robust and scalable is it? ”
He said the most likely scenario is that Abbott presents an ambitious proposal that would include more students than planned in 2023 and reduce contributions to districts that lose students to the ESA. It is said that
Opponents of Mr. Abbott’s plan could probably still negotiate to help the school district, but hopes that Democrats and anti-school choice Republicans would block school choice in 2025 “disappeared last night.” he said.
Mr. Abbott has been pushing for the ESA, even though recent polls have not been necessarily conclusive. In a recent University of Texas survey, just under half of respondents said they supported using taxpayer money to help families pay for private schools. Meanwhile, polls from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University found support at 65%.
The Texas Education Agency estimated that about 500,000 children, about half of the state’s private school and home-schooled students, applied to the program in the first round last year, with more applicants each cycle. did. The numbers prompted Democratic Representative James Talarico to quipped at a Congressional hearing that it amounted to a “massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.”
He added, “This is welfare for the wealthy.”
Elsewhere Tuesday, voters in two states, Kentucky and Nebraska, rejected voucher-related ballot measures. A third measure in Colorado seemed headed for defeat.
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