According to research from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, most Texans support adopting school choice legislation.
Of the just over 2,200 Texans polled by The Hobby School of Public Affairs, “65% support the adoption of legislation that would provide school vouchers to all parents in Texas, with 33% strongly supporting this legislation.”
Notably, minority groups from both parties back school choice at higher rates than whites. According to the poll, the only respondents lacking a majority of support for school choice were white Democrats.
Republican politicians advocating for school choice could further endear the party to minority voters in an election cycle that has seen high levels of support for a Republican Presidential candidate among minority voters.
While Donald Trump gains in popularity, teacher’s unions have become increasingly unpopular since 2020, when they insisted on keeping kids out of schools. Simultaneously, parents were getting an up-close and personal look at the quality of education their children received.
The net result saw a record level of parents pulling their children from government schools.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week said that Speaker Dade Phelan—if he’s reelected to the speakership—would fight against the passage of school choice legislation after Phelan refused to sign his name to a budget instruction memo to state agencies advising them on priorities.
Phelan’s public hostility toward Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott on the issue of school choice shouldn’t come as a surprise. Dating back to the beginning of his tenure in the House, Phelan has been supported by adversaries of school choice.
Posturing against Abbott’s priority issue, along with his poor showing in the 2024 primary have some predicting that Phelan will not be reelected to the speakership at the start of the 2025 legislative session.
In 2023, school choice did not move in the Texas House until the fourth special session of the legislature. In that session, teachers’ unions lobbied against an omnibus education measure that included large sums of money for the government school system to make the inclusion of school choice more palatable.
That measure ultimately failed when 21 House Republicans voted with all House Democrats to strip school choice from the measure.
Abbott, along with conservatives upset over the rushed impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, targeted incumbent Republicans during the 2024 primary election where several were defeated.
Following what has been called a referendum for choice, conservatives are calling for the passage of a clean school choice measure without massive outlays of cash to the education bureaucracy.
School choice legislation is expected to be a high priority in the 2025 legislative session.
