CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS | Gary Borders
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan withdrew last week from seeking another term leading that chamber. After three rounds of voting on Saturday, Dec. 7, state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, emerged as the preference of most House Republicans. However, his opponent, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, claims to have enough support from both Republicans and Democrats to clear the 76-vote threshold.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Cook acknowledged the race for speaker wasn’t yet over.
“I’ll continue working between now and Jan. 14 to earn (the vote) of every member of the Texas Republican caucus — as well as any Democrat,” Cook said.
Phelan, R-Beaumont, narrowly won reelection to his seat in the May primary, needing to prevail in a runoff to return to Austin. He was opposed by fellow Republicans who blamed him for the failure of several priorities in the last session, including the push to institute school vouchers.
Among Phelan’s opponents were Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was impeached by the House but survived a conviction trial in the Senate. Paxton blasted Burrows, who voted to impeach him, as “Dade 2.0.”
“Supporting Burrows is a betrayal of the conservative movement,” Paxton said Friday. “Voters will remember.”
Voucher push spurs call for accountability
Education savings accounts, popularly known as school vouchers, are again a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott in the upcoming session after a similar push failed in 2023. This time, however, the primary loss of several voucher opponents last March has even those opposing vouchers conceding passage of a measure is likely.
That means lawmakers will pass a bill to send public tax dollars to private schools, according to the Texas Standard.
At a recent visit to the private religious school Kingdom Life Academy in Tyler, Abbott said, “We are assuring that students who may have fallen through the cracks in their public school, they’re going to have a new chance, a new opportunity to be able … to learn, to achieve, to succeed.”
Dallas school board member Dan Micciche recently said since vouchers are a likely possibility, it is vital private and home schools that receive taxpayer money be held to the same accountability standards as public schools, including State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness testing.
“Any school or educational entity that receives public funds should be held to the same accountability standards for student outcomes, fiscal performance, open records and meetings act and student services,” he said.
Public school administrators are also pushing for teacher pay raises, something that fell by the wayside in the last session when a voucher bill failed to pass.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: [email protected]
