During the 2023 legislative session, House Speaker Dade Phelan worked with Democrats and a small cadre of Republicans to hold school choice legislation hostage.
A similar group wants to set up a repeat performance in 2025, and the effort smacks of desperation.
During the last session, House leadership stalled school choice legislation in committee, a tactic used to kill or weaken legislation. This gambit worked during the regular and multiple special sessions, with the measure dying before reaching the House floor for a vote. However, Gov. Greg Abbott was persistent, calling special session after special session to advance his priority legislation.
By the time a school choice measure was finally presented to members of the Texas House, it was hollowed-out and attached at the hip to a massive infusion of cash to government schools, a compromise designed to gain support for the school choice component.
Government education leaders opposed the spending increases to kill school choice. The measure died, and then, so did the political careers of many House Republicans who stood in the way of school choice passing.
These primary outcomes have significantly reshaped the Texas House. Now, the future of school choice is all but assured, and lawmakers who stand in the way are on notice.
However, a measure that threatens to undermine the most powerful union in the state of Texas, a state-subsidized political machine that works for Democrats and the most liberal Republicans, can’t be allowed an easy path to passage.
A targeted political attack and statements this week by Phelan loyalists and one bedraggled staffer reveal the outlines of the opposition.
State Rep. Mano DeAyala (R-Houston), flanked by House Education Committee Chair Brad Buckley (R-Salado) and Lacey Hull (R-Houston), posed for a photo-op saying that Texas schools need more funding.
DeAyala, a weakened incumbent, voted in favor of the school choice measure in 2023. He was challenged nonetheless for his vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton and was one of the poorest-performing incumbents to escape a runoff election or outright defeat.
Rather than reverse course to save his fledgling political career, DeAyala has apparently decided to carry water for the pro-union lobby.
Buckley made the trek to Spring Branch from Central Texas to attend DeAyala’s event. Recently, the chairman was reported to have said that school choice would pass during the next session, but he favored the approach his colleagues took last cycle, which some might call the dump truck of cash for the education union approach.
In August, Buckley was considered “staunchly” in Camp Phelan. DeAyala, Buckley, and Hull appear on a pledge competing with the Contract with Texas (reforms more conservative members want to see in the House), suggesting this remains the case.
The DeAyala posturing came a day after a cryptic message from Phelan’s newest volunteer staff member, former Dancing With the Stars contestant and Gov. Rick Perry.
In an interview over the weekend, Perry suggested that the speaker has the votes to retain his seat and that school choice will need some “jello thrown on the wall” to pass during the next session.
Perry, Buckley, DeAyala, and Phelan are setting the table for the teacher’s union to kill school choice legislation or, at the very least, get another crack at the windfall funding they rejected in 2023.
It’s odd to see this type of hostage-taking, which is typical during a legislative session, now, but not if you consider Phelan’s position after the primary. Phelan is as embattled as a speaker can be; his operation is coming undone.
