Texas Gov. Greg Abbott may have given lawmakers opposing school choice a sounding board to rally further support against sending taxpayer dollars to private and parochial schooling.
Earlier this week, Abbott wrote on X that the people "defunding public schools are PARENTS choosing a better option than what their assigned school provides."
In a later post, Abbott appeared to backpedal, writing that school choice "doesn't take a penny from public schools" and is funded separately like roads and water. The governor said the Democrats' "lies and fear-mongering" always fail.
Immediately, Texas Democrats and anti-voucher advocates caught wind of Abbott's social media remarks, likening the governor's statements to "admitting" school choice would defund public education.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu responded to Abbott by writing, "Hey, Governor, you forgot to include the address on the website. No worries, I gotcha."
Wu attached the link to "DontDefundMySchool," the website Texas House Democrats launched to help voters determine how much money their school districts would lose if school choice passed.
Houston ISD would alone lose over $75 million, have 1,408 fewer teachers for students and a projected increase in student-teacher ratio by roughly seven percent, according to the website's projections.
"Democrats want to make a clear case that the approach to vouchers is going to take away money from public schools," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. "Republicans want to make the case that's not exactly the way that it works."
Abbott's comments may be "counterproductive," Rottinghaus said, because they may confuse people about how the proposed legislation works. He added that the defunding argument those against vouchers are touting relies on the technicalities.
Although the money for a school choice program would be separate from the funding set aside for public schools and controlled by the comptroller's office rather than the Texas Education Agency, public schools are funded based on student attendance.
"There are so many different pools of money to flow into how much money districts get, but at the core of it, some of the money that would otherwise go to a district won't because they won't have a particular student," Rottinghaus said.
Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate have allocated $1 billion for a school choice program in their legislative budget proposals. The Senate's proposed version—Senate Bill 2—would allow most families to be eligible to receive $10,000 to cover tuition and other costs, while homeschool students could qualify for $2,000. It passed to the House last week. The House has not taken action on the legislation nor proposed its school choice bill.
Not knowing the final resolution of what a voucher-like program could look like is another factor of the "defunding argument." Rottinghaus said there will likely be "nips and tucks" that produce a different kind of bill.
"What Governor Abbott did in this series of tweets was to give Democrats a chance to crystallize all of their messages into one, what they hope is singularly persuasive," Rottinghaus noted. "Whether that will work, who knows? That debate is just starting."
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/abbott-school-choice-20167741.php