Gov. Abbott claims victory on school vouchers but chief critic says he’s counting his chickens before they hatch

The Texas Legislature now stands on the cusp of passing school voucher legislation, thanks to the results of primary runoffs held statewide May 28.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch supporter of private school vouchers funded with taxpayer money, declared victory for one of his top legislative priorities that has been rebuffed time and again by the Republican-controlled Legislature. He and his powerful allies funded and endorsed primary opponents to Republican legislators who have blocked vouchers, and they were largely successful this time.

“This is a victory for every Texas family across our great state,” Abbott said in a statement. “While we did not win every race we fought in, the overall message from this year’s primaries is clear: Texans want school choice. Opponents of school choice can no longer ignore the will of the people.”

What Abbott wants is not exactly the will of all the people of Texas, even though it is the will of his vision for the Republican Party in Texas. April polling by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found using tax dollars to provide school vouchers is opposed by 57% of Texas voters and supported by only 36%.

Using tax dollars to provide school vouchers is opposed by 57% of Texas voters and supported by only 36%.

Only a bare majority of Republican voters in Texas (50%) approves of the idea of school vouchers. Support is a bit higher (54% and 56%) for supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz.

Vouchers are opposed by 55% of white voters, 58% of Hispanic voters and 68% of Black voters. In no religious group does a majority of Texas voters approve of vouchers.

Yet Abbott has doggedly persisted in demanding the Legislature pass a voucher bill, even holding up pay raises for public school teachers until he gets what he wants.

What caused Abbott to declare victory is that six out of eight incumbent Republican lawmakers who opposed private school vouchers in the last session were defeated in the GOP primary runoffs this week.

Charles Foster Johnson, founder of Pastors for Texas Children, is one of the most outspoken opponents to school vouchers at the state Capitol. He told BNG Abbott may be counting his chickens before they hatch.

“Greg Abbott categorically said today that a private school voucher program would pass, but he always counts his chickens before they hatch,” Johnson said. “He declared vouchers on the 1-yard line right before they failed the House last session.

“For sure, his billionaire buddies obscenely outspent these rural Republican anti-voucher House members, buying several legislative seats to give Abbott his No. 1 legislative priority. But the fight is only half over now. We now enter the general election season when Texans will be reminded daily that rich out-of-state interests want to end public education in Texas for their own profligate wealth. We will see what Republicans and Democrats alike do with that information as they vote in November.

“My hunch is Abbott’s voucher push will end up in the 89th session much like it did in the 88th: far, far from the finish line.”

Among those “billionaire buddies” of Abbotts is Tim Dunn, a Midland oilman who has used his wealth to fund the most extreme ideas of the right wing of the Republican Party, a party he has effectively taken over and reshaped.

Just last week, the Texas GOP met to vote on a platform for 2024 that includes laws requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools.

The Texas Tribune reported: “Those moves, delegates and leaders agreed, were necessary amid what they say is an existential fight with a host of perceived enemies, be it liberals trying to indoctrinate their children through ‘gender ideology’ and Critical Race Theory, or globalists waging a war on Christianity through migration.”

“They want to take God out of the country, and they want the government to be God,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told the crowd. Patrick is a member at Second Baptist Church in Houston, where he preached on Mother’s Day.

This is nothing but plain Christian nationalism, according to Johnson and Pastors for Texas Children. In an email to advocates and allies, he wrote: “A relentless cavalcade of lies was unleashed on decent House Republican incumbents, mainly rural representatives, who bravely held the line against the privatization of public education in Texas by opposing a school voucher program in the 88th legislative session.

“It was said in mailer after mailer, ad after ad, that these House Republicans rejected public school funding. Nothing could be further from the truth. What they rejected was school funding that also included hundreds of millions for private schools. This orchestrated barrage of false witness was borne by the most powerful people in our state, including our own governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.”

Johnson named not only Dunn but Ferris Wilks of Cisco, Texas, and Betsy DeVos of Michigan and Jeff Yass of Pennsylvania as Abbott’s funders against the incumbent Republicans “who opposed private school vouchers, though they had carried his other agenda on conceivably every other issue.”

Despite the seats Abbott managed to turn, eight anti-voucher Republicans won renomination to their House seats.

Johnson repeated the complaint of Pastors for Texas Children against Abbott’s plan: “Vouchers divert public money to private schools with no accountability and transparency while funding religion in the process. They violate both the constitutionally protected public trust of universal education for all children as well as the eternal moral principle of religious liberty. They open the voluntary assemblies of our religious schools to public intrusion. They subsidize the education of children already affluent enough to afford private schools, thus transferring wealth from the poor to the rich.

“Vouchers are corrupt,” he said. “It is an immoral program that benefits the privileged few at the expense of the underprivileged many.”

The Texas Tribune quoted Rep. Gary VanDeaver, a Republican from New Boston, who echoed Johnson’s assessment. VanDeaver is a former school administrator who opposes vouchers.

Even if Abbott eventually gets a vote on vouchers, it may not produce what he wants, he said. “I do believe that there are some members that maybe would vote for a voucher who would have a hard time voting for a universal voucher that’s going to hit the budget for $22 billion in the fifth year for the biennium. I think there are some good strong conservatives who will scratch their heads and say, ‘How is that conservative?'”

 

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