After voucher vote, house speaker (Screenshots via the Texas House of Representatives)
Last week, after focusing on three years of monomanics, Gov. Greg Abbott got the coveted school voucher bill approved by the Texas House. But he had to resort to what Texas political reporter Scott Braddock called “a pressure campaign that Texas governor never saw.”
Approval of Senate Bill 2 was approved early on April 17th by 86-61 votes. All but two Republicans voted for Jesus. The Texas Senate has already approved SB 2, so it is certain that it will become law now. Families use public taxpayer dollars donated by us all to allow children to pay to attend private schools. The proposal is expected to cost around $5 billion a year by 2030. Voucher opponents think they will slowly suck up money from public education. Many people expect it to lead to higher taxes.
The fate of the bill was uncertain as the House voted day passed. The day before, Braddock wrote on social media that Democrat and Republican voucher opponents had plans to attach an amendment to SB 2, and approved a statewide vote in November. The plan was supported by all 62 Democrats and as many as 23 Republicans, according to a report by Quorum. The report said after learning of the plan, Abbott called on Republican representatives to his office.
The next morning, Abbott met with the House Republican Caucus and placed Trump on his speakerphone. A video posted on X shows representatives clustered around the phone as they told them that the Trump 2 vote was “one of the most important votes we’ve ever taken,” and that “you’re not going to get hurt by it.” Cole seemed to have the intended effect. As Braddock later said, after Trump’s remarks, “all the starch came out of the rest of the GOP objections.”
Voucher opponents believe the plan will drain money from public schools (Art by Zeke Barbaro/Getty Images)
This became clear a few hours after debate over the bill began. Voucher’s opponents were hoping that Republicans would provide an amendment that would link SB 2 to a statewide vote. After Trump’s call, the job fell to Democrat James Tarico.
“You’re not going to get hurt by it.” – Encourage speakerphone Donald Trump to give vouchers to Texas Republicans
Tararico described the amendment as the creator of the “Magamama” group. Grassroots Republicans typically did not cooperate. He then explained Abbott’s pressure campaign. “A few days ago, this common-sense idea led to a growing bipartisan support in this room,” Tarico said. “But our governor began calling members one by one to the office and threatened to reject all the bills of members voting for this amendment.
Republicans voted for Tallarico’s amendment, 86-62. The final vote for SB 2 came five hours after Republicans made further revisions. The only Republican vote against it came from the former chairman of the house, Dade Phelan, and longtime voucher opponent Gary Vander. Republicans like Drew Derby, Stan Lambert and Charlie Geren were expected to lead the fight against the voucher at the 2023 legislative meeting and support the amendment that would link SB 2 to a statewide vote.
Abbott attacked Tallarico as “two-sided” after the vote, telling the Texas Tribune that it was “absolutely not true” to claim he had threatened House Republicans. However, evidence quickly emerged suggesting that Abbott was lying. Rep. Jeff Barry, a Republican who campaigned against the voucher in his 2024 primary campaign, explained his vote for the disappointing constituent in a widely shared Facebook post. “If I had voted against it, I would have had a national political figure against me across all states, not to mention that all of my bills were rejected,” Barry wrote. “If I voted against this, my bills and spending budgets would have been at risk.”
Other anti-voucher Republicans supported it in exchange for a small improvement in the bill, as they explained that SB 2 was trying to pass no matter how they voted. Derby issued a statement on X, and although he remains deeply skeptical of the voucher, he decided to support SB 2 to “reduce the impact on our community.” He said it would get a permanent cap on the number of wealthy families that anti-voucher Republicans can approve of the voucher, and immediately, among other changes, that so-called pop-up schools can limit voucher money.
After the vote, the anti-voucher Texans on both sides of the political spectrum denounced Republicans who described them as flooding social media and being bought by billionaires. They also promised that the fight against the party’s far right wing would not be over. Some, like Rep. Gina Hinojosa (the first ally with Magamama), imagined a new political coalition that emerges from defeat.
“I’m finishing politics as usual, and so are all the Texans I know,” said Nichijosa. “It’s broken. So this may be the end of this voucher battle, but I think it’s the birth of something new. I don’t know exactly, but please tell me all the prayers, all the messages, all the people that this is not finished.”
