SAN ANTONIO — Governor Greg Abbott told the Texas Public Policy Foundation Tuesday, on the phone, that he's calling a special session to revisit school vouchers this October and he's willing to get them passed "the easy way" or "the hard way."
The easy way would be a vote though the special session. The hard way would be by challenging other Republicans at the polls in March.
"The votes seem to be lining up," Abbott said. "But sometimes things don't work out the way we expect them to. Here's what I want you to know. The only person that can call a special session is the governor in Texas is the governor and the governor can call it any time he wants to and it lasts 30 days. The governor can control the item on the agenda in that special session. We are going to call a special session in October to get legislators to vote on this and hopefully win but if we do not win in that first special session we will have another special session."
Abbott went on to say that he wouldn't give up even if two special sessions don't produce the result he wants.
"If we don't win that time then I think it's time to send this to the voters themselves to vote in the primaries. We will have everything teed up in a way where we will be giving voters in a primary a choice. They can choose someone who supports school choice or they can support someone who is against school choice," Abbott said. "There's an easy way to get it done and a hard way to get it done."
Abbott then gave callers an example from Iowa where the Governor of that state helped people who were pro-school choice win elections before her state passed a school choice bill.
"We will take it either way," Abbott said.
Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock told KENS 5 many Republican lawmakers are still likely to choose "the hard way" this year.
"There are at least 24 rural Republican members of the house that are not going to go along with school vouchers at any point this year, and I think the governors comments really are an acknowledgement that he knows vouchers are basically dead on arrival in the Texas house," Braddock said. "There is a coalition, nearly two-thirds of the house, that are not going to go along with a school voucher program... especially the voucher program that he wants."
Braddock said he expected the voucher program would be tied to a teacher pay increase to make it more attractive to some republicans. He said it would likely be the only way to bring republicans on board.
"For the rural Republicans, if they have to each a school voucher program, even a small one, they are not just going to want a pound of flesh they are going to want ten pounds of flesh," Braddock said.
Braddock also told KENS 5 many rural Republicans would remain dead-set against any voucher program, even with the threat of a primary opponent, because their local school districts are central to the community.
"In tiny towns and in sparsely populated counties its often the case that the number one employer in the area is the school district. Keep in mind that we are also talking about Friday Night Lights, we're talking about high school football and things that would threaten that," Braddock said.