Following an aggressive campaign to reshape the Texas Legislature by supporting primary challenges against Republican state representatives who voted against taxpayer-funded private school vouchers in the last legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have both designated the passage of universal voucher legislation as their top priority next year and expressed confidence that they finally have the votes necessary to do so.
Is that true? Let’s dive in.
Abbott Prematurely Declares Victory
Abbott has prematurely declared victory on vouchers while pivoting to a more conciliatory tone on education funding. The governor’s optimism follows his largely successful primary campaign against anti-voucher Republicans, backed by millions in out-of-state money from Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass and other sources of dark money.
During a carefully staged appearance at Kingdom Life Academy – a financially struggling Christian private school in Tyler – the day after the Nov. 5 general election, Abbott proclaimed he now has “79 hardcore school choice proponents” in the House — just above the 76 votes needed to pass voucher legislation.
Last session, he refused to support pay raises or increased school funding until after voucher legislation was passed, even as districts faced mounting deficits from rising costs and expiring pandemic aid. Abbott and his allies in the Texas Legislature ultimately held billions of dollars in public education funding hostage in a failed attempt to force the passage of voucher legislation. Now, he promises to both “fully fund” public education and create a universal “education savings account” program giving parents around $10,500 per child for private school tuition and other allowable expenses.
However, Abbott’s claims deserve scrutiny. His victory declaration came at a religious school with just 20 students, where school leaders echoed familiar voucher talking points about helping disadvantaged students – even as evidence from other states shows voucher programs primarily benefit wealthier families already in private schools while failing to improve academic outcomes for low-income students. Further, while there may be a majority of Republican members who support vouchers in principle, there is significant disagreement about the details of how a voucher program should be designed. This lack of consensus makes it unlikely that voucher legislation will be passed early in the legislative session and threatens to delay its movement through the process.
Patrick’s Ultimatum
Patrick has staked his political capital on forcing through a voucher program, recently declaring it his “top policy priority” and reserving the priority bill number “Senate Bill 2” for the legislation — second only to the constitutionally required budget bill. Patrick is demanding Abbott declare vouchers an emergency item to bypass the normal 60-day waiting period for passing bills at the start of a legislative session and has threatened to block all other legislation until vouchers pass. He has blamed the House for Texas’s lack of a universal voucher program, noting that the Senate has passed voucher legislation five times since 2015 only for those bills to die in the House.
Patrick’s rhetoric has grown increasingly hostile, labeling any Republican who works across the aisle or who opposes vouchers because of the impact they would have on their public schools as attempting a “coup d’état” against the party.
House Leadership Battle Intensifies
The Texas House speaker race has become a critical battleground in the fight over vouchers following Speaker Dade Phelan’s (R-Beaumont) withdrawal the day before the House GOP Caucus’s endorsement vote.
The contest between Reps. David Cook (R-Mansfield) and Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) reflects deep divisions over both vouchers and the House’s traditional bipartisan operation. Cook secured the GOP caucus endorsement with 48-14 votes, but only after Burrows’ supporters left the caucus meeting following two deadlocked rounds of voting. While all 88 Republican state representatives are technically bound by the GOP caucus rules to support its endorsed candidate, Burrows is attempting to bypass the caucus rules by building a coalition with Democrats. 76 votes are needed in order to be elected the next speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
After losing the GOP caucus endorsement vote, Burrows claimed to have assembled a list of 76 supporters – 38 Republicans and 38 Democrats – which he later publicly released. Since the list was released, however, several of Burrows’ Republican colleagues and one Democrat have stated that they did not agree to have their names added to the list or have withdrawn their support. The House Democratic Caucus, led by newly elected chair Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston), has indicated Democrats will not support Cook but has released its members to vote for the candidate of their choice. Cook has committed to ending the longstanding practice of appointing members of the minority party to serve as committee chairs, a top priority of the movement to “reform” the House led by far-right members of the House GOP Caucus.
It must be noted that Burrows has not publicly committed to maintaining Democratic committee chairs. Burrows, the former House GOP Caucus chair, is a Phelan lieutenant and is known within the labor movement as the author of the “Death Star” bill, which passed in 2023 and strips cities of their ability to protect workers through local ordinances like mandatory water breaks for construction workers, paid sick leave requirements, and other basic labor protections that Texas’s major cities had enacted to protect working families. Burrows has, however, expressed support for “public education funding and increased support for teachers.”
Abbott and Patrick have expressed support for the House GOP Caucus rules requiring that members vote for its endorsed candidate, representing an implicit endorsement of Cook. Regardless of the outcome of the speaker race, both Cook and Burrows are expected to support the movement of voucher legislation in the House given their previous votes and public statements on the issue.
Pre-Filed Voucher Bills
As of today, four voucher bills have been filed, though none have been assigned the low bill numbers reserved for priority legislation.
While HB 612 by Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) takes the form of a relatively conventional voucher scheme administered through “certified educational assistance organizations” and HB 984 by Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) is also similar to legislation filed last session, the other two bills filed would use novel and unvetted mechanisms to provide vouchers, such as reimbursements to parents who pay local property taxes. This latter group of bills seems intentionally designed to obfuscate their true nature and to improve the likelihood of surviving legal challenges.
All the bills filed include new language seeking to frame vouchers as advancing “parental empowerment” and allow use of the funding for private school tuition and other allowable expenses. They also seek to protect private schools from any of the standardized testing, accountability, or transparency requirements for public school districts. Some include provisions seeking to provide various amounts of supplemental funding in the early years of the voucher program to public schools that experience declining enrollment due to students leaving to participate in the private school voucher program.
Though some of these bills may receive committee hearings in the upcoming legislative session, they are not expected to pass. The voucher bill that ultimately gains the most traction is likely to be the one assigned a priority bill number.
What Our Schools Need to Thrive
Vouchers are a divisive distraction from what our students, educators, and school employees really need to thrive. While political operatives focus on manufacturing support for private school vouchers through dark-money campaigns and staged events, our members — from small rural districts to major urban systems — have identified clear, practical solutions that would benefit all Texas students.
While Abbott stages carefully orchestrated appearances at tiny private schools and out-of-state billionaires pour dark money into our elections, the real needs of Texas public schools go unaddressed. This political theater is particularly disconnected from the reality faced by rural communities, where private school options are scarce or nonexistent and public schools serve as both major employers and centers of community life. In fact, more than 45% of Texas school districts serve rural communities — districts that would see their already-stretched funding diluted by a voucher program that would primarily benefit a small number of students in urban areas who already attend or plan to attend private schools.
Instead of diverting money from public education by using taxpayer dollars to fund yet another parallel system, the Texas Legislature can and should prioritize the universally popular priorities within our Educator’s Bill of Rights. Texas AFT has worked with our members to develop this positive vision for strengthening public education, a vision supported by the results of our 2024 membership survey.
These priorities enjoy broad support among both Democrats and Republicans, from rural to urban communities. They include improving working conditions by ensuring school safety and reducing class sizes, enhancing compensation and benefits for educators and school employees, addressing the growth in the number of uncertified teachers in our classrooms, and expanding access to mental health services.
Our public schools are the cornerstones of our communities, and the challenges they face deserve real solutions — not political distractions that would drain resources from an already underfunded system. Texas AFT stands ready to work with lawmakers who share our vision of public schools supported with the resources and policies necessary to thrive. We invite every educator, parent, and community member who believes in this vision to join us by signing on to support our Educator’s Bill of Rights and helping us bring it to the Texas Legislature in 2025. Together, we can ensure Texas finally delivers the public education system our students, educators, and school employees deserve.