Several pro-voucher Republicans ousted incumbents in the March primary election and Republicans flipped two historically Democratic House seats Nov. 5, shifting the lower chamber further to the right. Republicans will control 88 of 150 House seats when the Legislature reconvenes Jan. 14.
The House now has 79 “hardcore school choice proponents,” Gov. Greg Abbott said Nov. 6 in East Texas. A simple 76-vote majority is required to approve legislation in the chamber.
“School choice improves educational opportunities for minority and low-income students, and Texas is going to make sure they have that opportunity,” Abbott said during a news conference at Kingdom Life Academy, a small private Christian school in Tyler.
How we got here
Abbott also said Nov. 6 that he was committed to “fully funding” Texas public schools and raising salaries for teachers. Both policies crumbled last year after the House rejected vouchers.
House lawmakers voted 84-63 to strip vouchers from an extensive education proposal during a November 2023 special session. Twenty-one Republicans, largely from rural communities, joined House Democrats to vote for an anti-voucher amendment, which ultimately killed the entire bill.
During the March primaries, Abbott led the charge to unseat Republicans who opposed vouchers, and he was largely successful.
Current situation
Public school districts across Texas are grappling with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, high operating costs and stagnant state funding. Some districts asked voters to approve bond propositions and tax rate increases Nov. 5, but not all passed.
State lawmakers have not adjusted the base amount of money schools receive per student—known as the basic allotment—since 2019. The basic allotment is $6,160, and schools receive about $10,500 per student annually, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Nationally, about $16,281 was spent per-student during the 2022-23 school year, the National Education Association reported.
Texas will increase teacher pay, enhance career training opportunities for students and adopt “universal school choice” during the upcoming legislative session, Abbott said.
“Some people... make it sound like you can't have both school choice and robust public schools,” Abbott said. “That's completely false. The reality is we can have the best public schools in America and also have school choice at the very same time. It does not have to be one or the other, and it's wrong to pit one against the other.”
Zooming in
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who oversees the Texas Senate, said passing school vouchers was his “top policy priority” for 2025.
“Thirty-two states, both Republican and Democrat, have enacted some form of school choice legislation. There is absolutely no reason why Texas children and parents should be left behind,” Patrick said in a Nov. 8 statement. “A one-size-fits-all approach to education in a state with a population of 30 million, 254 counties, 1,200 school districts, and over 8,000 campuses simply cannot possibly meet the needs of every student.”
Patrick urged Abbott to list vouchers as an emergency item, allowing lawmakers to bypass a constitutional rule that prevents them from passing legislation during the first 60 days of a regular legislative session.
“If that bill doesn’t pass, I’m not signing another bill all session,” Patrick said during a March 21 speech at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual conference in Austin.
Vouchers were one of Abbott’s seven emergency priorities for the 2023 session. State senators approved vouchers multiple times last year, while the proposal only reached the House floor once.
All legislation must be signed by Patrick and the speaker of the House before it heads to Abbott’s desk. The governor has the final say on which bills are signed into law.
