School choice is coming to Texas.
Last year, efforts to pass a school choice bill in the state legislature were stymied by a coalition of anti-school choice Republicans and Democrats in the Statehouse.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, made the bill to create a K-12 education savings account policy a top priority. Although the Texas Senate passed it, the bill failed in the lower chamber when 21 Texas House Republicans joined with all House Democrats to kill it.
But GOP primary voters weren’t happy about that. In March, Lone Star State voters replaced six anti-school choice Republican incumbents with Abbott-backed challengers who supported school choice, and sent four others to runoffs.
On Tuesday, Republican primary voters finished the job by supporting three of the four Abbott-backed, pro-school choice candidates. Additionally, pro-school choice candidates won in five open-seat races that had been vacated by anti-school choice incumbents, who—likely seeing the writing on the wall—decided not to run for reelection.
“The Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass School Choice,” declared Abbott on Tuesday night on X, formerly Twitter. “Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.”
The Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass School Choice.
Congratulations to all of tonight‘s winners.
Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.
The victories are a vindication of what “school choice evangelist” Corey DeAngelis calls the “Red State Strategy” in his new book “The Parent Revolution.”
For decades, the school choice coalition had pursued a bipartisan strategy that too often meant spending inordinate resources trying to win over liberals while taking conservatives for granted.
It also meant making a case for school choice on liberal or libertarian grounds—focusing on how school choice helps the disadvantaged or how competition spurs achievement—while remaining silent about cultural issues that might turn off potential supporters on the Left.
Although this strategy led to some incremental gains, it failed to win over many Democrats and too often meant compromising on policy. In 2021, my colleagues Lindsey Burke and Jay Greene at The Heritage........