At a public education forum hosted on Texas Tech’s campus earlier in the month, Texas State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, informed the audience a school voucher program would emerge in the upcoming legislative session. As a matter of fact, he all but guaranteed it and viewed his role in the 89th Session was to make the best deal possible.At the Texas Tribune Festival, State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, also lowered his sword and banner. He informed the audience, as reported by Lubbock Avalanche-Journal , that the fight is over. He said “It’s coming. It’s coming. Prepare yourself for a voucher program. The politics of the day have won this battle.”
King went on to say, “My goal was to cut the best possible deal for public schools. I do not agree that we should give vouchers out with no accountability, and that’s really where it got hung up, once the accountability measures were stripped out of the bill. There was nothing left for me to vote for…The votes are there — it’s fact. That fight is over.”The fight is over. School voucher advocates won – well that is what they want us to believe.The truth of the matter is advocates for school vouchers won many Texas House races in the March Republican primary. There is another hurdle for them to clear: the general election.In those races, there are a few where the school voucher advocate won the primary but those areas only elected the Republican because he was there for a long time. As the district changed in demographics, the leadership did not because those Republicans were trusted by their constituents. Now that a small number of Republican primary voters ousted integral leaders, the people’s time to show the district changed has arrived. There are Republicans who will face Democratic challengers in those particular districts.Couple that with the few competitive Texas House districts either in The Valley or the suburbs and it is possible for Democrats to gain – that is correct, gain – seats in the legislature’s lower chamber. How many seats? On my calculation, not enough to recapture the Speaker’s gavel but enough to stave off the push for a school voucher program.When Sen. Perry and Rep. King argued that a school voucher program was inevitable in the 89th Legislative Session, they ignored the November election. They counted their chickens before they hatched. That is unlike them because both leaders are politically astute. They are good at reading a room and so for them to all but guarantee it is going to happen makes me wonder if they know something no one else does.For the sake of argument, imagine the senator and representative are correct in their analysis.The next phase in the process will be what the proposed school voucher program looks like. So far, no agreement on a concept has taken place. There are those who want an Arizona-style, universal school voucher program, which has blown a $1.3 billion hole in The Grand Canyon State’s budget. Then, there is Governor Greg Abbott’s proposal of an education savings account (ESA) that was piloted during the coronavirus pandemic. Then, there is what Rep. King and Sen. Perry desire in – whatever voucher plan that is proposed – making the best possible deal for their districts and constituents. What that would resemble is unknown but best guess is the attempt to make schools that accept the voucher program accountable to state standards.