Democrats have outmaneuvered Republicans for years on the issue of tax money going to private schools, but in the early hours of April 17 conservatives finally got their wish. On a nearly party-line vote, the bill to create education savings accounts (vouchers) passed 85-63, with two Republicans continuing to side with Democrats.
It was not for a lack of effort on the part of Democrats, both on the floor and in the gallery, who showed up and threw every argument on the table to the last hour, only to be ignored all along the way.
No Substantive Debate
They didn’t want to cap the program to protect taxpayers.
They didn’t want to talk about potential economic hard times and being prepared for that.
They didn’t want to talk about the reality of “choice”.
They didn’t want to talk about private school accountability.
They didn’t want to talk about the private school option to deny entrance to applicants.
They didn’t want to talk about projections that the most likely beneficiaries of the program will be people already attending private schools.
They didn’t want to talk about data collection to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the program in the future.
They didn’t want to talk about why the allotment per student is more than the basic allotment.
They didn’t want to talk about what could be done with the same funds in our public schools.
They tabled 43 proposed amendments to the bill on the issues above and more. They didn’t debate and vote them down on their merits, they tabled them. There was no substantive debate because they have no good answers.
What Changed?
Nothing. Nothing about the education savings account (voucher) debate changed this spring, except that Republicans finally closed ranks behind a multi-million-dollar influx of money and strong-arm tactics that included a phone call from Donald Trump.
In the end, there were no answers to the most important questions:
- How will the poor in Texas take advantage of a program that doesn’t fully fund private school attendance?
- How will rural Texans benefit when most don’t have private schools near them?
- How do we justify $10,000 per student for private schools, while only allocating $6,555 per student to public schools?
- How do we justify spending public funds on schools that have no accountability to taxpayers?
In the end it wasn’t about having answers, it was about finally having enough votes to do as they pleased, regardless of the will of the people and how it will impact Texas’ future.
History will show Republicans couldn’t make this happen until they ignored the issues and just did as they were told.
Thank You
From the Williamson County Democratic Party to our elected Democrats, our party activists, parents, teachers, administrators and more, thank you.
We didn’t win this time, but we reminded Republicans what they’re up against, even when they control every position of power in our state government. We are a force, and won’t be set back simply because they had enough votes to ram a bad bill through.
What Now?
We remind Texans that Republicans own this program. We remind people they crafted it, they refused to make changes, and they passed it.
We watch. We document and track the evolution of this program. We pay close attention to who benefits from this program, to what the costs become, to how private school tuition costs increase, and to who misses out on it.
Image Credit: “The Texas Capitol Austin HDR” by Katie Haugland Bowen is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.