AUSTIN − As tensions rise over a GOP-led effort to create a private school voucher-like program in Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott addressed critics of his chief policy goal Wednesday in front of a gathering of grassroots conservatives in Austin.
“The future of our state is going to be hinged in a meaningful way to what we do in this state and educating the next generation of Texans,” Abbott said. “It’s time we set our sights on a new No. 1 standard – Texas must be No. 1 for educating our kids and school choice is a path to achieving that goal.”
Abbott made his comments after a week of ramping up efforts to promote his signature school reform plan. He’s facing an increasingly vocal band of critics as the proposal to help parents pay for private schooling begins to gain steam in the Texas Legislature.
On Wednesday, Abbott spoke before a crowd of conservative organizers, activists and party faithful at the opening day of a three-day policy summit hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential think tank based in Austin.
From the stage, Abbott celebrated recent comments by Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who recently vowed to pass a school choice program this session in a chamber that has, for decades, resisted the idea.
“We all must appreciate and comprehend and recognize Texas history when it’s made,” Abbott said.
His half-hour speech dove a bit into policy details, offered counterpoints to arguments by school choice opponents, and appealed to his party’s moral ideology for support in helping parents remove their children from public schools.
“If you’re a working mom, doing your best to put food on the table and pay the bills, maybe working two jobs, knowing that your child at school is being bullied relentlessly,” Abbott said. “School choice gives that mom the option to choose a better, safer pathway for her child.”
The 2025 Texas Policy Summit at the University of Texas at Austin will feature other political heavyweights, including House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Thursday and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday. Abbott’s remarks were preceded by a speech from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, a former TPPF president and CEO.
Subsidizing private school tuition and expenses with education savings accounts is one of Abbott’s priorities for the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature.
Opponents say the plan puts money in the pockets of political supporters rather than adding the funding to public schools, which are accessible to more students and cannot turn away children based on anything other than geography.
Republicans have been in charge of the state for more than 20 years and should fix the underfunded public school system they oversee rather than divert students and drain that funding, opponents say.
“No child should be trapped in a school that fails to meet their needs just because they live in TX & the Governor is holding their education dollars hostage to deliver a voucher scam to his billionaire donors,” state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, a former school district superintendent, posted on X.com. “Fully fund our neighborhood schools. No more gimmicks. No more scams.”
The opponents are clearly getting desperate, Abbott said, to cheers from the attendees.
“You can tell that we are winning,” Abbott said. “You can tell that the fight is over, because there is a threshold in this process that shows you the end is near, and that is when your opponents have nothing else to resort themselves to, other than lying about the facts.”
Earlier this month, Abbott laid out a host of recommended policy initiatives, including education savings accounts, finding new sources of water, lowering property taxes, investing more into border security and the power grid, limiting bail for violent offenses, strengthening career training and beefing up the state’s cybersecurity systems.
On Wednesday, Abbott emphasized his support for not just using $10 billion in state tax dollars to lower property taxes but limiting the ability of local taxing districts to raise them and subjecting increases to a public vote.
“Pouring more money at this cause of trying to buy down property tax rates or increase homestead exemptions, whatever the case may be, is not going to get a return on investment as long as we have these local taxing jurisdictions go behind our back and increase your property taxes even more,” he said.
Abbott also touched on a new partnership with Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., praising them for their “game-changing” support of Texas on border security after years of battling President Joe Biden’s administration over efforts to beef up the state’s border with Mexico.
Abbott spent millions on campaign donations trying to oust Republican opponents of school choice during last year’s primaries. He succeeded in replacing 11 GOP “no” votes in the Texas House with supporters.
Abbott now seems to have enough votes for legislation to land on his desk, but he’s clearly not taking any chances — making appearances around the state and matching the adversarial energy of his critics as he lashes out at them in personal attacks, and counter attacks, with gloves off.
He called Texas House Appropriations Vice Chair Mary González, D-El Paso, a “fake doctor” for using that title because she has a PhD and said he could “understand your confusion.” Responding to House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu, D-Houston, he said, “Gene, did your private school teach you math?”
“You all just fabricate crazy talk,” he posted to a staffer of state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, who had described “standing room only” at a recent event, during which Talarico criticized the school choice program. “My crowds were much larger in Athens and Edinburg.”
Asked about the volume of posts on his X.com account, which is run by Abbott’s staff but also includes posts by Abbott himself, the governor’s spokesman, Andrew Mahaleris, said Abbott “will not rest until Texans have their voices heard and school choice is the law of the land.”
Public schools will not be defunded by an education savings account program because the ESAs are funded separately, Abbott said Wednesday.
“Just as we set aside other money for roads, for water, for power or the other things that we pay for in the state, we can set aside money for school choice,” Abbott said.
Abbott has acknowledged schools are funded based on attendance and that when a student leaves the public school system — as they would if they used an education savings account — that funding leaves with them.
Critics argue that the loss of per-student funding, however, is a net loss to the school because costs such as maintenance and staffing do not drop proportionately when a student is no longer on the roster.
Abbott also sought to counter critics’ arguments that ESAs would not cover most tuition, that private schools and homeschoolers would be overregulated by the state, that the state would be spending more on private school students than on public schools, and that rural and low-income students would be left behind.
All of that is “completely false,” Abbott said.
The median private school tuition in Texas is $10,000 — although some can cost tens of thousands — which means there are plenty of schools that can be covered by the program and more would come if one existed, Abbott said.
“The rich already have school choice. It’s others that don’t have school choice,” he said.
Legislation on the move
In early February, the Texas Senate approved a “school choice” bill on a 19-12 vote was largely along partisan lines. Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, was the sole Republican to vote against Senate Bill 2. All 11 Democrats opposed the bill.
Republican budget writers have proposed spending $1 billion of the state’s nearly $24 billion surplus to create education savings accounts. Any student could apply for an account which could cover $10,000 for private school expenses or $2,000 for homeschooled students.
Special education students would be eligible for an $11,500 education savings account. The bill allows $2,500 for homeschooled students with a disability.
If the number of students applying for education savings accounts exceeds $1 billion, participants would be selected through a lottery system that sets aside 80% of the fund for students who previously attended public school and are either from low-income households or have a disability.
The remaining 20% would be open to any student, including those attending a private school.
