Despite being the top legislative priority of Gov. Greg Abbott, school choice legislation appears all but dead in the Texas House.
Abbott had been optimistic about the chances of the legislation passing as recently as Wednesday morning. He told reporters, “We are on track to ensure there will not be another special session.” He also indicated that a new bill would be filed later in the day, though that did not happen.
On Wednesday evening, the House met briefly and then was placed “at ease” until either Monday or Tuesday. The special session is slated to end on Tuesday.
State Rep. Brad Buckley (R-Salado), the chair of the Public Education Committee, said after the business was concluded that the timeline was “too tight for the House to be able to move something in this special.”
Just yesterday, Abbott said he had reached an agreement with House Speaker Dade Phelan on a compromise bill that would include “billions” of dollars in new funding for public schools.
The governor has previously hinted that a fourth special session might be called if the House failed to pass a school choice plan.
The Texas Senate has repeatedly passed school choice legislation, including SB 1 in the opening days of this special session.
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