It finally happened -- school choice is coming to Texas. The House and Senate voted yes, and Governor Greg Abbott will sign it soon. It's a big victory for parents and another example of the governor working to make something happen. In 2024, the governor supported pro-choice Republicans and got them elected.

The Wall Street Journal posted this:

When Gov. Abbott called special sessions in 2023 to pass education savings accounts, 21 GOP House lawmakers joined Democrats to vote them down. Many cited concern for rural districts that lack private options, and some were beholden to teachers unions.

Gov. Abbott responded by making ESAs a political liability for these Republicans by endorsing pro-ESA opponents in primaries. Voters backed most of his endorsements, and in November he clinched the number of pro-school choice lawmakers he needed. Only two Republicans, including former Speaker Dade Phelan, voted against the bill this week.

It’s worth noting that Republicans had to spend more for public schools to grease ESA passage. Nearly all House lawmakers voted for a separate bill that increases public school funding by some $8 billion. That includes teacher pay raises and “hold harmless” provisions that ensure school districts will keep most of their funding from one year to another.

This may be politically necessary, but one point of school choice is for money to follow students. Public schools that don’t serve students well, and lose them, should face the market consequences.

But Gov. Abbott’s triumph is a breakthrough for Texas families who want options outside district schools. “With two toddlers in the home, groceries and gasoline were priority,” so “my quality education didn’t make the budget,” said Texas resident Angelina Tamez in House testimony last month. The ESAs “would allow us the opportunity of the American dream, a fighting chance and a future where our zip code no longer dictates our destiny.”

Again, this is an example of Governor Abbott's muscle and his willingness to fight for what he believes.

The Democrats are singing their usual tune – that this is a gift for millionaires who can send their kids to private schools. You mean like the many Democrats in our legislature who send their kids to private schools? Or the Obamas, who speak on behalf of the teachers union although their daughters have never walked into a public school, in Chicago or Washington D.C.? Of course, no one asked the President about this contradiction when he spoke in front of the union.

My guess is that school choice will need some refining in the future. But at least we are now a school-choice state, the kind of place that keeps attracting families from areas with lousy public schools.

Last, but not least, school choice is another consequence of how the government has failed the citizens, with lousy public schools defying parents who want their children educated properly.

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Image: Gage Skidmore