The Texas School Choice Showdown

Gov. Greg Abbott goes all-in to defeat GOP legislative opponents of educational savings accounts in primaries next Tuesday

WSJ editorial.

"School choice has been on a roll in the states but hit a road block last year in Texas. On Tuesday Gov. Greg Abbott and allies are going all-in with an effort to defeat the GOP state legislators who favored the unions over parents and children last year.

The stakes are high for Texas and nationwide as Mr. Abbott is taking on members of his own party. He’s endorsed 10 challengers to incumbents who defeated his plan for universal education savings accounts for the more than five million K-12 students in the Lone Star State.

Mr. Abbott tried to pass ESAs worth about $10,500 per student, and he called two special legislative sessions to do it. The ESAs would have been the first private school choice program in Texas, and a separate ESA plan passed the state Senate. But 21 House Republicans joined Democrats to kill Mr. Abbott’s proposal, 84-63, in November.

That’s when the Governor pledged to take the issue to the voters, even if it meant challenging GOP incumbents. Sixteen of the 21 Republican anti-choice votes are running for re-election, and choice proponents need to pick up about a dozen House seats to pass the ESAs. Primary races could go to runoffs in May if no candidate clears 50% of the vote next week.

One challenger is Hillary Hickland, a mother of four who jumped into the race against incumbent Hugh Shine in House district 55 in central Texas. “Public school wasn’t right for our kids,” she says, and she wanted “everyone in my community to enjoy the same opportunities for their children and their children’s future.” Mr. Shine voted against the Abbott plan.

Mr. Abbott is stumping for the challengers and has poured some $6 million into the effort, according to local press reports. The Club for Growth and the American Federation for Children are also in the fray with advertising and endorsements.

They have public opinion on their side. Sixty percent of Republican primary voters said they would be less likely to vote for an incumbent who rejected school choice last year, according to a University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey in January. In response to a ballot question in 2022, 88% of GOP primary voters indicated that they support parents’ “right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.”

Teachers unions have spent money on the anti-choice Republicans, as John Tillman documented in these pages last autumn. Their false claim is that rural public schools will be hurt by ESAs, though Gov. Abbott was also prepared to accept several billion dollars of additional funding for traditional public schools. If parents are content with rural district schools, they have no cause for worry. “The majority of families will always choose public schools,” Ms. Hickland says. “That is great. No one is giving up on public schools.”

The larger case for choice is moral when so many public schools are failure factories that can cripple students for life. The state reports that fewer than half of students across all grades and subjects met grade level requirements in 2022-23. The Houston schools superintendent said last year that 111 of that district’s schools merit a “D” or “F” grade. That should be a scandal.

The Texas showdown follows progress in several Republican-run states in recent years. Florida, Arizona, Arkansas and Utah have created or expanded ESA programs to all students. The Alabama House passed a universal ESA bill this week that has the backing of Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

In 2022 Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds set the political example for Mr. Abbott when she endorsed primary challengers and succeeded in ousting anti-choice GOP incumbents. The Legislature proceeded to pass a universal school choice bill last year.

If Mr. Abbott’s political investment pays off next week, it will have national implications. Georgia’s Brian Kemp and Tennessee’s Bill Lee are examples of GOP Governors who have endorsed ESA bills this year and will need to push harder to pass them. A victory for the reform candidates in Texas will send the message that opposing school choice is a political liability in the Republican Party."