FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2025
CONTACT: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org
Gov. Abbott has brought in the Arizona official behind that state’s runaway voucher program to … help his cause?
Austin, Texas – In his relentless quest to pass a private school voucher scheme in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott is calling in reinforcements. On Tuesday, he invited former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to an event at the Capitol, ostensibly to help him sell this deeply unpopular policy proposal.
As governor, Ducey signed Arizona’s universal voucher program into law in 2022; since its passage, other states, including Florida, have used it as a model for their own no-holds-barred approach to private school voucher policies.
Since that time, the voucher program has blown a hole in Arizona’s state budget to the tune of a $1.4 billion budget shortfall. The state’s original price tag of $65 million for the program ballooned to spending totaling $332 million in its first year.
Despite these abysmal fiscal realities – the state has had to slash $333 million planned for water infrastructure projects to close the gap – Ducey has continued to crow about the voucher program, calling it “one of his finest achievements and a legacy accomplishment” in 2024. Notably, that statement came a full month after Arizona taxpayers learned at least $1 million of their money had been used to purchase Legos.
See a list of media-verified purchases with Arizona voucher funding
That Abbott is looking to Ducey to help him assuage concerns from Texans and their lawmakers about this unaccountable cash grab, bankrolled by Jeff Yass and other billionaires, is head-scratching.
“It’s certainly a choice to lock arms with the man who signed into law the signature piece of legislation that has bankrupted his state,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. “If Ducey is proud that his state has diverted money from water infrastructure to fund the purchase of $10,000 sewing machines or ski passes for families using vouchers, that’s his business. But I feel confident in saying that’s not what Texans want, not when our public schools are closing campuses, laying off staff, and cutting bus routes to cover their own state-manufactured budget deficits. There’s nothing about the Texas Legislature’s voucher proposals that would save us from the same fate as Arizona.”
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The Texas American Federation of Teachers represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.
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