SAN ANTONIO — One of Gov. Greg Abbott’s main priorities in 2023 was passing a school voucher program, or education savings account program, that would give every student funding to use at the school of their choice.
When the Texas Legislature didn’t pass vouchers during the regular session, the governor later called a third and forth special session specifically for vouchers. Furthermore, Texas Senators tied a school funding increase to the voucher bill so the only way districts would get that funding was to support vouchers.
Still, 21 house Republicans sided with Democrats to kill the voucher program, with an amendment, in a 84-63 vote. House Republican John Raney, who opposed vouchers, said “It’s not conservative and it's bad public policy.”
But Governor Greg Abbott had already pledged to campaign against the Republicans that opposed vouchers if it didn’t pass, and he followed through.
The Governor, and other pro-voucher groups, spent millions of dollars to support new candidates to replace the resisting Republicans. On March 5, nine republicans that opposed vouchers lost their seats and two more are now in tight runoff-races against pro-voucher opponents.
Denisha Allen, a Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children, which supports school choice, told KENS 5 they support the governor's progress.
“Last session he called special sessions to get school choice bills passed and the seated legislators refused to do so,” Allen said. “This is a victory for him as well as for Texans across the state.”
Allen also said “we are confident that Texans are applauding” the push for vouchers.
At the same time, American Federation for Children spent $4.5 million on advertising for vouchers in Texas and Governor Greg Abbott’s campaign spent around $6 million backing their preferred candidates.
Teachers Unions like the American Federation of Teachers and San Antonio Alliance said it was the money, and negative advertising that changed votes.
“When you look at the history of Texas on this issue, the majority of Texans don’t want it,” Adrian Reyna, with SA Alliance said. “When you look at millions of dollars being spent in these elections, is this really voters learning about the issue and changing their minds or was this an onslaught of millions of dollars of out-of-state money to ram an initiative down voters throats?”
Additionally, the governor’s attack ads against republicans who didn’t support vouchers often didn’t even mention vouchers and instead used claims about border concerns to hurt opponents.
One Abbott commercial stated, “I cannot trust John Kuempel to secure the border, but I can trust Alan Schoolcraft, he will work with me.” Another commercial stated, “I cannot trust Steve Allison to help me secure the border, but I can trust Mark Lahood, he will work with me.”
UTSA Political Science Chairman Jon Taylor told KENS 5 Abbott ran nearly identical commercials with that same claim.
“Abbott literally sat down and cut these commercials by… stick ‘new person’s name’ in the script,” Taylor said. “The governor was disingenuous… let’s be blunt here… He was disingenuous by claiming that… let’s use Allison and Kempel… that they somehow supported people who are unlawfully in the United States…It’s untrue.”
But Taylor also said the negative advertising seems to have worked. Abbott defeated nine republicans who voted against vouchers. Two more incumbent representatives, John Kuempel and Justin Holland, are in extremely tight runoff races with a new challenger.
If those last two representatives fall to pro-voucher opponents, Taylor said Abbott could have the votes he needs to pass vouchers if those candidates win in November.
“I would say he has a pathway. We don’t know what will happen in these runoffs and we don’t know what will happen in the general election,” Taylor said. “But we have to make an assumption, based on what we’ve seen so far, that Greg Abbott is right there at the goal line.”