A battle over school vouchers is mounting in the race to be Texas governor, set into motion after Republican incumbent offered his clearest support yet for the idea in May.
His Democratic challenger, Beto 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别, is hammering Abbott over the issue on the campaign trail, especially seeking an advantage in rural Texas, where Democrats badly know they need to do better and where vouchers split Republicans. 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 campaign is also running newspaper ads in at least 17 markets, mostly rural, that urge voters to 鈥渞eject Greg Abbott鈥檚 radical plan to defund鈥� public schools.
Abbott, meanwhile, is not shying away from the controversy he ignited when he that he supports giving parents 鈥渢he choice to send their children to any public school, charter school or private school with state funding following the student.鈥� He met privately last week with Corey DeAngelis, an aggressive national school choice activist who had previously criticized Abbott as insufficiently supportive of the cause.
鈥淪chool choice鈥� tends to refer to the broad concept of giving parents the option to send their kids to schools beyond their local public school, while vouchers would allow parents to use state tax dollars to subsidize tuition for those other options, including private schools. Opponents of vouchers say they harm public school systems by draining their funding. In the Legislature, vouchers have long encountered resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans whose public schools are the lifeblood of their communities.
翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 is leaning into the bipartisan salience of the issue.
鈥淔or our rural communities, where there鈥檚 only one school district and only one option of public school, he wants to defund that through vouchers, take your tax dollars out of your classroom and send it to a private school in Dallas or Austin or somewhere else at your expense,鈥� 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 told a rural audience recently.
It is a quote that 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 campaign is repeating in a that argues Abbott has 鈥渓eft behind鈥� rural Texas.
Abbott鈥檚 campaign said 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 newspaper ads are a 鈥渃omplete lie,鈥� accusing 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 of siding with 鈥渦nion bosses鈥� over parents.
鈥淭he Governor strongly believes parents deserve more involvement in their children鈥檚 education,鈥� Abbott spokesperson Mark Miner said in an email. 鈥淭he real question is why is 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 so afraid of parental involvement with their children鈥檚 education? Shouldn鈥檛 families across Texas have the same opportunities that Beto鈥檚 parents had to send their kids to the school of their choice?鈥�
翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 a public school, El Paso High School, for two years before attending a private, all-male boarding school in Virginia.
His campaign has been running the newspaper ads since the end of the school year, around high school graduations. They have appeared in newspapers with decisively rural readerships, like the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Amarillo Globe and Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel. They are customized to each market, telling readers of the Abilene Reporter-News, for example, that they should not 鈥渓et Greg Abbott privatize public education in Abilene.鈥�
翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 campaign said it has spent 鈥渁round $40,000鈥� on the newspaper ads, a drop in the bucket compared with the $23.9 million cash on hand it had at the end of June 鈥� let alone Abbott鈥檚 $45.7 million in reserves. But it is the first known paid media the campaign has done beyond its online advertising, and it marks a deliberate choice by 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 campaign to appeal to rural voters who long have been key to blocking a Democratic breakthrough statewide.
翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 has been outspoken about vouchers before, including during his 2020 presidential campaign, when his statements , Amy 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别, who founded a charter school and continues to advocate for them. Asked about that in the context of the current race, 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 spokesperson Chris Evans provided a statement reiterating that 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别 鈥渨ill put an end to Greg Abbott鈥檚 attacks on public education鈥� and noted his three kids attend public schools in El Paso.
Texas Democrats are acutely aware they need to improve their margins in rural Texas if they want to have a better chance at winning statewide. Delegates to the state party convention last month reelected the chair, Gilberto Hinojosa, after a competitive race in which the party鈥檚 neglect of rural Texas was hotly debated.
In a recent interview, Hinojosa said rural Texas was the 鈥減rimary reason Beto was not able to win at the very end [of his 2018 U.S. Senate campaign], even though he came very close.鈥�
鈥淲e have to do better, and we鈥檝e believed that for a long time,鈥� Hinojosa said, adding that it has 鈥渁lways been a question of scarceness of resources鈥� rather than a question of the party鈥檚 understanding of the importance of rural Texas.
With Abbott鈥檚 embrace of vouchers, Democrats believe they have a strong opportunity to loosen the GOP stranglehold on rural Texas. Another Democratic statewide candidate, Mike Collier for lieutenant governor, has been getting the attention of prominent GOP names like U.S. Sen. after tweeting a clip from a recent speech in which he declared 鈥渧ouchers are for vultures.鈥� The current lieutenant governor, Republican , has long championed the proposal, predating Abbott.
Abbott himself has acknowledged his May statement was meaningful. Later that month, he asserted to reporters that he has always supported school choice but wanted to 鈥渕ake it abundantly clear not only that I support it but the strategy to achieve it, where the funding follows the student, which is the way that it should be.鈥�
Polling on vouchers in Texas can be dicey given that it is often done by interest groups and the language of questions varies.
In an from an independent pollster, the University of Texas at Austin, 45% of voters said they supported 鈥� and 40% said they opposed 鈥� 鈥渞edirecting state tax revenue to help parents pay for some of the cost of sending their children to private or parochial schools.鈥� The pro-voucher Texas Public Policy Foundation sponsored a that found 78% of Hispanic adults in Texas 鈥� part of a demographic that Republicans are targeting in November 鈥� support the 鈥渞ight to use the tax dollars designated for their child鈥檚 education to send their child to whatever school, public, charter, or private school that best serves their needs.鈥� And in May, shortly before Abbott鈥檚 comments, the anti-voucher Texas Parent PAC that found 46% of likely voters support 鈥� and 43% oppose 鈥� 鈥渁 school voucher program in Texas,鈥� according to a memo that did not provide the question language.
Abbott met July 26 with DeAngelis, who tweeted a picture of the two afterward shaking hands at Abbott鈥檚 campaign headquarters in Austin. An Abbott spokesperson, Renae Eze, said they 鈥渄iscussed school choice, parental involvement, and various groups working together to ensure Texas students receive the best possible education opportunity.鈥�
DeAngelis is the national director of research at the American Federation for Children. His meeting with Abbott was especially notable since he has previously criticized Abbott over his endorsements of candidates in state House primaries backed by teachers unions.
Vouchers continue to face an uphill battle in the chamber, where they have long hit a wall of opposition from Democrats and rural Republicans. Last session, the House voted 115-29 on a budget amendment to ban vouchers, with a majority of Republicans siding with Democrats. The amendment did not make it in the final budget after late negotiations with the Senate.
The latest GOP primaries and runoffs did not significantly expand the pro-voucher crowd in the House. School choice groups spent big to unseat two unfriendly GOP incumbents 鈥� Reps. of Graford and of College Station 鈥� but were unsuccessful.
Another rural Republican who opposes vouchers, Rep. of San Angelo, said he thought the issue could have an impact on the governor鈥檚 race. He did not criticize Abbott but said he 鈥渨ould hope and pray鈥� that protecting public education is an issue that drives people to the polls.
He said his priority is to represent the communities in his district, and 鈥渢hey鈥檙e dominated by independent school districts that are the lifeblood of our communities,鈥� noting they鈥檙e often the largest employer.
鈥淚f that school district goes away, the identity of that community goes away,鈥� Darby said. 鈥淚 am supportive of that institution in these communities, and I want to make sure they have all the resources they need to certainly maintain the support of that efficient system of public free schools, which our constitution requires. Anything that takes away from that, I will oppose.鈥�
In other corners of the House GOP caucus, there is growing optimism for school choice next session, especially after Abbott鈥檚 May statement. The group got a boost two months earlier when a GOP primary ballot proposition passed with 88% support that said parents 鈥渟hould have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.鈥�
One of the most vocal advocates in the House has been Rep. of Midlothian, who said Abbott is right to lean in to the cause. 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别, Harrison said, 鈥渁ttended elite private schools, yet sides with liberal extremists to 鈥� deny poor kids the education opportunities he had.鈥�
鈥淕ov. Abbott wants to empower parents with education freedom so every child can get a quality education,鈥� Harrison said. 鈥淭here may be no more important issue than school choice. It鈥檚 the right thing to do. It鈥檚 also a political winner.鈥�
The latest campaign finance reports also provided fodder for the vouchers fight. One of 翱鈥橰辞耻谤办别鈥檚 biggest donors was the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union in America that has long opposed vouchers, which gave $300,000. Abbott has long had large donors whose interests include school choice, and one of his biggest contributors on the latest filing was Stuart Stedman, a Houston investor and prominent advocate for charter schools who gave $300,000.