Texas House Denies Voters a Say in Private School Voucher Scams

AUSTIN, Texas – Early Thursday morning, the Texas House gave initial approval to Senate Bill 2, the private school voucher scam legislation. Never one to fight his own battles, Governor Greg Abbott relied on a last ditch phone call from Donald Trump to bully Republican lawmakers to fall in line.

“The fight isn’t over yet, but it’s a damn sad day for educators, their students, and the millions across our state who love our public schools. For years and years, the Legislature has said no to craven attempts to sell off our schools to the highest bidder because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle historically understood the importance of free, high-quality public education for every Texas student. It’s hard to stomach that one phone call from Donald Trump is enough to change that,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. “Republican leaders are poised to put the nail in the coffin of our public schools, and you’ve never seen such gleeful pallbearers. To deny the voters–their own constituents–a say in what happens in their communities and to their schools is unconscionable.”

Lawmakers tabled an amendment ordering a statewide referendum by a 86-62 vote. All Democrats and only one Republican defended the measure. Abbott doesn’t want to put it to a vote because he knows that when vouchers are on the ballot, they’re uniformly rejected (see: 2024 referendums in Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska). 

Another tabled amendment would have capped program expenditures at $1 billion instead of letting it balloon to the projected $7 billion in fiscal years 2028-29.

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Texas AFT represents 66,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.