Thin majority of Texas House signs on to support voucher bill

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A narrow majority of the Texas House signed on in support of the chamber’s school voucher bill on Wednesday, signaling that Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority is on track to clear the lower chamber.

Days after Rep. Brad Buckley filed House Bill 3, the chamber’s plan for letting families use public funds for their children’s private schooling, 75 Republican members enlisted as coauthors on the measure. The 76 votes, including Buckley, would be just enough to form a majority of the 150-seat House if each member supports the final version of the bill.

Speaker Dustin Burrows did not sign on as a coauthor, but the Lubbock Republican has signaled support for vouchers and Buckley’s bill, and he could provide an extra vote of breathing room for voucher proponents. Speakers rarely vote on legislation but occasionally make exceptions for key votes or to break ties.

Lawmakers in both chambers of the Legislature routinely sign up as coauthors when they want to publicly show their support for a bill or resolution.

Buckley, a Salado Republican who chairs the House Public Education Committee, filed HB 3 last week along with a slate of education bills that would collectively increase public school funding and rework the state’s discipline and accountability standards.

Though HB 3 is now supported by a majority of the House, the measure will likely evolve as pro-voucher lawmakers iron out differences with the Senate, which passed its own plan in early February to create voucher-like education savings accounts. The Republican-controlled Senate has passed several voucher bills in recent years, including in 2023, but each has died in the House under opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans.

Many of those anti-voucher Republicans were supplanted by members who support the policy, prompting Abbott to claim that the House now has 79 “hardcore” voucher supporters — nearly in line with the number supporting Buckley’s bill.

Rep. Dade Phelan, one of 11 House Republicans other than Buckley or Burrows who did not sign on as a coauthor, said he remains undecided in part because he expects a lot to change in HB 3 by the time it reaches the House floor. It's "a very complex bill with a lot of moving parts,” Phelan said, adding that he wants to hear more input from his district on “how they want me to represent them.”

“My constituents, they’re going to be the ultimate decider on this,” Phelan said, calling HB 3 “one of the most important pieces of legislation we’ll vote on in my time in the Legislature."

Abbott, who spent millions of his own campaign dollars last year targeting anti-voucher House members, said it was a “remarkable achievement” for the House to assemble enough votes to pass Buckley’s bill — the first time ever, Abbott said, when the chamber has had majority support for a “universal” voucher program for which every Texas student would be eligible.

Abbott has long insisted that the Legislature approve only a program open to every Texas student, rather than a more pared-down one for disadvantaged students.

“I will continue working closely with both chambers of the Texas Legislature to get the biggest launch of any universal school choice program in the nation to my desk, where it will be swiftly signed into law,” Abbott said in a statement.

Both chambers are proposing to spend $1 billion to establish education savings accounts that families could use for private school tuition and other educational expenses, like textbooks, transportation and therapy. The plans diverge when it comes to how much money students would receive, which applicants would take priority and how the program accommodates students with disabilities.

None of the House’s 62 Democrats signed on as coauthors Wednesday. Among the 11 Republicans who were absent from the support list, six opposed Abbott’s voucher proposal in 2023: Reps. Drew Darby, Jay Dean, Charlie Geren, Ken King, Stan Lambert and Gary VanDeaver. The other five who did not sign on were Reps. Jeffrey Barry, Ryan Guillen, Sam Harless, Brian Harrison and Phelan.

Phelan, the House speaker until the session began in January, remained neutral throughout the 2023 voucher clash. But the House’s failure to pass a voucher program led to the ouster of several Phelan allies in last year’s primaries, a key factor in his decision to give up the gavel.

Phelan narrowly survived his own primary after facing opposition from pro-voucher groups that forced him into a runoff in his southeast Texas district. But Phelan disputed the idea that his difficult primary was a reflection of his district's support for vouchers. The attack ads lobbed at him were about other topics, Phelan said, like his record on border security.

"School choice was never a campaign issue," Phelan said.

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