There was a massive red wave last Tuesday night across the nation, and Texas was no exception.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott took to X last week, once again making his commitment to education freedom known: “Parents know their kids better than anyone, & they want to put them on the best path to success.” He continued, “With last night’s election results, we can provide school choice for every Texan.”
Less than 90 minutes later, the governor posted a pledge, “Texas will deliver school choice.”
School choice is supported by all demographics in Texas.
Texans of all backgrounds, including Black & Hispanic parents, strongly support school choice.
School choice improves educational opportunities for minority & low-income students.
Texas will deliver school choice. pic.twitter.com/NOVfwA9jOP
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 7, 2024
Texas, known for freedom, has been an outlier among historically conservative states when it comes to the rights of dads and moms to have education options for their children outside of the public school system. This is despite only 37% of Texans thinking K-12 education in the local school district within Texas is headed in the right direction.
Abbott’s commitment to empowering parents with education options is nothing new. He has advocated for school choice in the Lone Star State since 2017.
During the Texas fourth legislative special session in November 2023, the school choice effort died by an amendment to House Bill 1, which removed a school choice provision from the education spending bill by a House vote of 84-63. The 21-point defeat resulted from 21 Republican representatives from rural areas in the state voting with Democrats against school choice.
With the Texas legislative session convening only every other year, Abbott used the intervening time effectively to campaign to get those anti-school choice Republican representatives out of office and, in turn, elect pro-education freedom candidates.
The Texas primary election in March was successful to this end, as six Republican representatives who voted against school choice lost their seats. The March run-off election resulted in another three Republican anti-school choice representatives getting voted out of office.
Added to those numbers were five others who forwent seeking reelection, knowing a reckoning was coming. Each of those representatives was replaced by a pro-education freedom candidate. A total of 14 seats were flipped from anti-school choice Republican representatives to education freedom champions. That 14-seat pick-up translates into a 28-point positive swing for school choice — giving Abbott the numbers needed in the Texas House to pass a sweeping school choice bill for families. The Texas Senate had not been the barrier.
The November 5 general election results are still coming in, but it has been reported that Republicans have flipped one Texas Senate seat, resulting in a 20-11 Republican majority. The victorious Republican candidate Adam Hinojosa, referred to by the American Federation of Children as a “school choice champion,” is the first Republican to win the Rio Grande Valley since Reconstruction.
In the Texas House, similar results are still being reported, but it is currently anticipated that Republicans will flip two seats, making their majority 88-62. It’s no surprise that Abbott is confident this time around — not just that it’s possible to enact education freedom in Texas, but it is probable with the new legislators.
As of 2023, of the 52.1 million K-12 public school students in the United States, nearly 5.7 million lived in Texas. That translates to 11.88% of all students nationwide. Should Texas pass a universal school choice bill, that would increase the total number of public school students with school choice access in America from 18.9 million to 24.6 million — from 36.3% to 47.21%.
The benefits of education freedom are significant for each individual child, their family, and community. Additionally, widespread school choice programs save a state enormous sums of money because the funding provided to the family to take to an alternative education option is generally only one-third to half the amount public education spends per student.
As Martin F. Lueken wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “a recent EdChoice analysis of 48 school-choice programs across 26 states through 2022 estimates that school-choice programs generated cumulative net fiscal benefits for taxpayers worth between $19.4 billion and $45.6 billion.” That number is dramatically on the rise because, since that time, ten states have joined West Virginia and Arizona in signing universal or near-universal school choice into law.
With the current K-12 public education spending on Texas students topping $70.6 billion annually, massive savings will result in the years to come. Therefore, empowering parents with education freedom for their children is not only the right thing to do but also has positive fiscal benefits for the state’s bottom line. For Texas, that will be billions of dollars saved each year once Abbott’s persistent leadership in delivering school choice is across the finish line.
The great news for Texas families is that the reality of education freedom could be merely months away.
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Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.
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