The Texas state House now has a school choice majority after multiple Republicans who opposed the education initiative lost their primary runoff elections on May 28, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
“The Texas Legislature now has enough votes to pass school choice. This is a victory for every Texas family across our great state,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement after 11 out of the 15 Republican challengers he backed triumphed over House incumbents in their primaries.
“While we did not win every race we fought in, the overall message from this year’s primaries is clear: Texans want school choice,” he said. “Opponents of school choice can no longer ignore the will of the people.”
Mr. Abbott’s top legislative priority last year, known as the Texas Education Freedom Act, allocated $3.8 billion to raise teacher salaries and provide an additional $975 million in school funding.
It also aimed to create taxpayer-funded education savings accounts (ESAs) that would give parents greater control over how that money will be spent on their children’s schooling.
Under the proposal, Texas students currently enrolled in public and private schools, as well as those enrolling in pre-K or kindergarten for the first time, would get $8,000 per year in their ESAs to pay for a school of their choice and cover education-related costs such as transportation, uniforms, textbooks, and tutoring.
The ESA program was initially capped at $500 million, based on an estimated 62,500 eligible students.
Modeled after existing school choice programs such as those in Arizona and Tennessee, the proposed Texas ESA would pave the way for students to move outside the public education system.
Currently, the only tax-funded options for school choice in Texas are still within the public system: charter schools and magnet schools, as well as inter- and intra-district enrollment.
The school-choice measure was dealt a fatal blow last November when 21 Republican House members voted with all Democrats in favor of an amendment stripping the ESA provision out of the bill. Most of those Republicans represented rural parts of Texas and worried that expanding school choice meant diverting taxpayer dollars from their districts’ public schools.
In the November 2023 vote, the House passed the anti-ESA amendment by a margin of 84 votes to 63. Among those Republican holdouts, six already lost their primaries in March while four retired and were replaced by pro-school-choice candidates, leaving a total of 10 House seats in the hands of school choice supporters ahead of Tuesday’s runoffs.
Another seat that was left vacant at the time of the education bill vote is expected to be filed by Brent Money, who has stated that he would back Mr. Abbott’s school-choice program should it be up for a vote in 2025.
That means pro-school-choice Republicans just needed two runoff victories to secure a 76-vote majority in the 150-member chamber, assuming all of those candidates hold their seats in the upcoming general election.
Unofficial results of the May 28 runoffs show that at least three Republican opponents of Mr. Abbott’s bill failed to secure the party nomination: state Reps. DeWayne Burns, Justin Holland, and John Kuempel.
The Associated Press called Mr. Burns’ and Mr. Holland’s races for their respective pro-school-choice challengers, former Glen Rose Mayor Helen Kerwin and former Trump administration spokeswoman Katrina Pierson.
Mr. Kuempel trailed his runoff contender, former state lawmaker Alan Schoolcraft, by a 55-44 percent margin in early vote results.
“As we look ahead to the November general election, we will continue to work tirelessly to elect strong, conservative candidates who will ensure every child in Texas has access to the best education possible regardless of their zip code or economic background,” said Mr. Abbott, who has thrown much of his political weight behind school choice over the past year.
“Working together, we will create an even brighter future for generations to come.”
