April 13, 2023      1:30 PM

HK: The sad, storied history of trying to sell vouchers to Texas Republicans

Back in 2005, the founder of TPPF fielded five pro-voucher GOP challengers to House members; two won and then skipped the vote. Now, the guy who vetoed the Legislative budget is asking current members for gut check votes

Start with the presumption that there are legitimate intellectual and policy arguments for ESAs/vouchers.

Then, forget the policy arguments because it has been the twisted politics of the ESA/voucher debate that has been fascinating. The overwhelming affirmative vote not to fund vouchers in the Texas House further undermined whatever presidential aspirations Gov. Greg Abbott may have entertained. But more importantly, it exposed House Republicans’ distrust of their Party leader who previously broke his word to help his GOP pre-K supporters in their primaries, formally fielded challengers against three incumbents, and cavalierly and pointlessly vetoed last session’s legislative budget.

As one Republican supporter of the Herrero Amendment banning public funds directed to private schools said of the Governor: “He is all stick, no carrot.”

By Harvey Kronberg

Copyright April 13, 2023, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved