Gov. Abbott targets anti-school choice House Republicans

AUSTIN, Texas - After several failed special sessions to get school vouchers passed last year, Gov. Abbott is now targeting House Republicans who would not vote for it. 

According to the Texas Tribune, Abbott will campaign for primary challengers who are pro voucher. 

FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren spoke with Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Mackowiak and Democratic analyst Ed Espinosa to discuss.

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MIKE WARREN: Matt. The governor and his allies are engaging in what many are calling revenge politics. Is that a good way to put it?

MATT MACKOWIAK: I wouldn't look at it as revenge. I'd look at it more through the lens of trying to enact a policy agenda that he ran on. One he strongly supports, one that has been overwhelmingly approved by Republican primary voters in the 2022 primary when it was on the ballot. And of course, school choice is something that every Republican senator, including rural Republican senators, support. So right now, I think they are something like 12 votes short in the House of getting to the majority they need, and they're going to try to flip enough seats through competitive challenges against incumbents and open seat races to get there. I think the governor's looking at this as maybe not just a one election cycle issue, that he thinks this is a major thing Texas needs to do, and that he is going to be committed to it for multiple years, if that's how long it takes. Keep in mind, we're not the only red state that's tried this. In fact, most red states have already done it. Florida's done it. Tennessee's done it. Arizona's done it. And those states have rural Republicans too. So he's trying to get people that will support this. This is the civil rights issue of our time. And it's a way to improve our education system.

MIKE WARREN: Ed Espinosa, is this something the governor could be successful at?

ED ESPINOZA: I think he's going to have his work cut out for him here. The problem that he is running into is rural Republicans. And in rural areas, the closest private school could be hundreds of miles away. So a voucher system, some people call it school choice, may not necessarily help these people. Also, in some of these rural areas, the school districts are the single biggest employers in these areas. So these are the cuts that people would feel very deeply. And I think that the Republican legislators who are standing up to the governor in these areas have good reason to do it. And, you know, the opposition to vouchers is not just from the Republican side. Obviously, the Democrats are against it as well. But there are a lot of problems with the voucher system here, and it's good to see some really standing by their principles on this issue.

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MIKE WARREN: You know, it's a political matter. Matt Mackowiak, how about it? What Ed is pointing out about some of these rural districts and rural Republicans. Do you think they are persuadable by the governor and the voucher system?

MATT MACKOWIAK: Well, I'd say two things. One, if you look over recent legislative sessions, they've made progress in the House. They are five or 10 votes further along than they were one or two sessions ago, when the Herrero Amendment showed pretty significant Republican House opposition to this kind of idea. So they've made progress. They have another 12 votes to go. The counterpoint I'd make to what Ed raised about rural areas not seeing benefit from school choice is if that's true, then it won't cost them anything either. Because the only way this process would work is that parents would take the money that would go to the school, and actually not even all the money, I think it's only about three quarters of the money, and use it for another educational opportunity. So if they aren't doing that, then it doesn't hurt that rural school district. Right. And again, you look at Charles Perry, senator from Lubbock, who represents something like 18 or 20 rural counties. He voted for this in the Texas Senate. So this issue is going to get fought in the primaries here in about four or five weeks, and we'll see how it ends up.

MIKE WARREN: Ed, how do you think it's going to play out?

ED ESPINOZA: Well, I'd argue that it absolutely hurts those schools because the thing is, most vouchers rarely cover the cost of a private school. So, if you're taking money away from a public school and sending it to a private school, most parents are still not going to be able to afford that private school, which means their child is now sitting in a public school that has even less money than it had before. And Texas is already at the bottom of per pupil spending in this country. So I think that there are a lot of risks here. There are reasons they're against it. And I think that the Republicans who have stood up to this issue are going to be rewarded for it by their voters. So we'll see how it plays out.