“I am hopeful that we will be able to put together a package that will allow ESAs to get passed in the first special session,” he said on a recent visit to the Journal. If it doesn’t, “I can call another one right after it, which is what my game plan is to do. I can play this game longer than they can play this game.”
By “they” he means Members of the Texas House, chiefly Republicans representing rural districts, who stonewalled efforts to pass ESAs this spring. The state Senate passed a bill to provide ESAs worth $8,000 each to most students, but the House never voted on it.
ESAs still lack enough Republican votes in the 150-Member House. Their contradictory case against ESAs is that rural students won’t benefit from school choice because they have no options beyond district schools. But they also claim that rural district schools will be devastated if students use ESAs and leave for alternative schools that don’t currently exist. If ESAs inspire new school options in the future, then rural students would benefit like those in cities and suburbs.
It’s not as if Texas public schools lack for state funds. Some $5 billion is on the line in funding for district schools if the Legislature passes the ESAs, and a chunk of that is for teacher pay raises.