Gov. Greg Abbott escalates fight on school choice. Will Texas House members cave?

As Texas lawmakers remain at an impasse over school choice entering the final week of the legislative session, it seems likely that Gov. Greg Abbott will summon them back to Austin this summer to further consider his plan to inject public money into private education.

Abbott ran out of patience last week, threatening to schedule a special session after House members, who’ve spent months signaling opposition to his school voucher program, began discussing a watered-down version that would apply to only 15% of the state’s 5.5 million schoolchildren.

School vouchers, long a fantasy in Texas, are accessible in a dozen states, and Abbott is determined to bring them here. He launched a statewide promotional tour, trekking to private and religious schools, and pitched his proposal to rural lawmakers, whose districts haven't budged much in their opposition to the program. Unsuccessful thus far, he's prepared to wear down the state's 149 representatives and 31 senators until he gets what he wants.

“All the campaigning, all the speeches and all the proclamations didn’t work, so now we’re seeing him play hardball,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

The special session warning serves as a reminder of the power the governor holds over the part-time Legislature, whose work is never truly done until the governor says it is. The state constitution makes clear that the governor may call a special session at any time and for any reason, and that there is no limit to the number of sessions he can call.

Speculation around the Capitol is that Abbott might schedule a special session after the summer school break, when teachers return to their classrooms and can't make the trip to Austin to protest vouchers.

May 29 is the final day of the 140-day regular session. The longest a special session can be is 30 days.

Whether Abbott can ultimately move the legislation across the finish line remains uncertain, as House members appear dead set against it and are holding their ground even after the governor's special session threat. The clearest sign they would not surrender to Abbott came in April when they approved the chamber's version of the state budget and voted 86-52 to prohibit funding for a voucher program.

Under Senate Bill 8, an Abbott-approved voucher plan the Senate passed in April, every public school student in Texas who opts into the program would get $8,000 to spend toward private school tuition, also called an education savings account.

“He’s definitely putting all of his chips on the table,” said Jon Taylor, a University of Texas at San Antonio political science professor. “If we want to use a poker term, he is pot-committed on school vouchers.”

Abbott, a three-term governor, has a history of ordering special sessions. He called three in 2021, determined to pass a sweeping election reform package that House Democrats tried to block; and one in 2017, after his second session as governor. He called no special sessions in 2015 or 2019.

Though big-city Democrats were always going to oppose the voucher proposal, Abbott's message notably fell flat with some Republicans, particularly those from rural areas. They concluded that school choice, as originally proposed, would weaken public education in their communities and perhaps reduce enrollment to a point that athletic teams and other activities would suffer.

"This is a terrible bill,” said David DeMatthews, a professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas. “It’s going to cause harm.”

Scott Jensen, senior adviser with the American Federation of Children, said today's school choice movement emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, when parents had a clearer window into their children's classroom experience.

“Lots of parents are looking for a way to get their kids caught up that better meets their learning style,” Jensen said.

Though vouchers would probably headline any special session, it remains unclear whether Abbott would include additional topics and, if so, which ones. In 2021, all three special sessions had 10 or more topics.

The House and Senate have yet to come to terms on property tax relief, another Abbott priority. The governor campaigned on returning half of the state’s nearly $33 billion budget surplus to property owners, but House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are at odds over how to deliver that relief. If an agreement is not reached, expect the fight to continue in a special session.

Abbott this session also prioritized border security, cracking down on liberal judges and prosecutors, and making schools safer. If he feels lawmakers came up short in these areas, they could be addressed in a special session.

Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative nonprofit Texas Values, said that anything can happen in the final days of a session, and he hasn’t ruled out school vouchers getting passed. But if the House holds strong to its opposition, he said, he’s taking Abbott at his word about a special session.

“It’s reasonable to expect that the governor is serious about his commitment to this issue, and he has a right to call a special session on that issue,” Saenz said.

The most Abbott has said about a possible special session came in a May 14 statement in which he said he'd veto any bill that doesn’t provide “meaningful school choice,” and that if lawmakers present him a plan unlike his $8,000-per-child preference, it will “necessitate special sessions.”

Abbott’s office, which rarely accepts or answers questions from the media, declined to elaborate.

The special session threat came after Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, chairman of the House Education Committee, introduced a scaled-down version of the Senate plan. The revised option narrowed the education savings account to only special education students — about 800,000 children.

That version is stuck in the House committee after members heard invited testimony May 15. Buckley told The Texas Tribune that there’s little point in scheduling a committee vote on the revised proposal, knowing that even if it passes and advances to a vote by the full chamber, it won’t be good enough for Abbott.

As such, overtime sessions might be needed, and political legacies will be on the line. For anti-voucher House members, caving to Abbott could be seen as weakness and used against them in a primary election. For Abbott, failing to deliver on his signature education plan would be an embarrassment, said Rottinghaus, the Houston professor.

A win, however, would solidify him as the center of the Republican Party with success where previous GOP governors fell short.

“He, passing it, would be immortalized in Texas Republican history,” Rottinghaus said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature: School choice, voucher fight boils. What's next?