Texas Legislature adjourns with private school subsidies undone, again

AUSTIN — The Legislature wrapped up a special session Tuesday with Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority — a government subsidy program for private school tuition — undone.

For the third time this year, the Texas House stood in the way of passing legislation that would have created education savings accounts, a school voucherlike program that allows public funds to flow into private schools.

A group of mainly rural Republican House members killed any chances of Abbott’s latest push for the school choice legislation after they joined Democrats who were in lockstep against the proposal.

The Senate initially waited in the wings to see if the House would take any last-minute action Tuesday. But about an hour after the House adjourned to head home — effectively killing all pending legislation, including the school choice bills and teacher pay raises — the Senate adjourned as well.

The lack of action has fanned the flames of internal strife within the state GOP and added fodder to an ongoing feud between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan.

Patrick called Phelan’s leadership “dysfunctional” and accused him of “negligence” and “stupidity” in his handling of House business, airing grievances from legislative fights in 2021 and 2023.

“The leadership at the top has been an absolute failure to the people of Texas,” Patrick said during a Tuesday news conference.

A representative for Phelan countered that the House led on “more robust” legislation that would have given one-time pay raises to teachers and bolstered school safety — bills his office accused the Senate of killing.

“The House remains focused on conducting business to the will of the people — not manipulating the legislative process for the sake of press conferences and cheap political talking points,” office spokesperson Kim Carmichael said.

The question remains whether Abbott will call lawmakers back to Austin for a fifth special session this year. Alternatively, the governor might focus on unseating Republican incumbents in the House who voted to kill the ESA bill, a route he’s suggested he’d take if the measure failed.

That would put off any further effort to pass a school choice bill until 2025, after next year’s election when a new House is inaugurated.

To that end, Abbott already has endorsed at least three Republicans who are challenging GOP House members who voted against subsidized private school tuition. Several House Republicans who voted to kill the proposal have announced they are not seeking re-election.

Abbott’s office was non-committal to a course of action, sending out a statement late Tuesday that the governor would “work with Texas legislators and at the ballot box” to get the ESA proposal passed.

“The fight for school choice for all Texas families will continue until it’s won,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said. “A majority of Texans across our state and from all walks of life support school choice, and Governor Abbott will not rest until school choice is passed.”

Also left undone were a pair of bills proposed in the Senate, with lawmakers in that chamber rushed out the door Friday. One measure proposed $800 million more funding for school safety that Phelan called a “cynical attempt” to cast the House in a bad light.

The other bill unheard in the House would change how courts handle election challenges to amendments to the Texas Constitution. The proposal is designed to expedite a series of lawsuits filed last month that could upend recently approved voter propositions, including one that will save homeowners hundreds off their property tax bills and another to increase retired teachers pensions.

The Legislature did pass a bill making illegal entry into Texas a state crime, empowering local police to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants and granting state judges the power to deport. Legal challenges are expected in the constitutionally murky legislation that ups the ante in Texas’ stand-off with the Biden administration over the border.

Lawmakers also approved $1.5 billion to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border and $40 million for Abbott’s illegal immigration enforcement program Operation Lone Star.

Both bills await Abbott’s signature.