Texas Democrats aim to gain state House seats by opposing school choice initiatives

Democrats in Texas are looking to flip state House seats by running against Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) school voucher program and other Republican education priorities.

Members of the state Democratic Party spoke last week about the Republican reforms at their convention in El Paso, where many in attendance criticized using taxpayer dollars to fund the ability for Texas students to attend private schools.

The plan to run on education comes after Abbott successfully primaried several mostly rural Republicans who opposed the voucher program due to concerns that allowing education money to follow students could take funding from schools that are often the largest employers in small towns susceptible to fluctuation in population following the boom-bust cycle of the energy sector.

Proponents of school choice, however, argue that parents, not the government, should be the primary decision-makers when it comes to the education of their children. Highlighted by school closures during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the revelation that schools were teaching children left-wing ideologies such as critical race theory and queer theory, those in support of school choice say parents need to be afforded the opportunity to remove their children from public schools and send them elsewhere.

Rural Republicans and Democrats have normally worked together on these kinds of initiatives, and some believe voucher programs can add to teacher shortages and budget deficits because of how the monetary allocation is restructured.

Democrats believe if they flip three seats, they will have enough to defeat the voucher program.

“We need to elect about three more Democrats to the Texas House to defeat vouchers and defend our neighborhood public schools,” Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa said, according to the Texas Tribune.

One of the districts being targeted is that of Republican state Rep. John Lujan, who represents an area won by former Democratic Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke when he challenged Abbott for governor in 2022. Last year, one school district in the area had to close four elementary schools due to budget matters.

“The financial crisis schools are facing is due to massive budget deficits, and that’s the inevitable result of elected officials like John Lujan who have been choosing to toe the line with their party rather than stand up for their community,” Kristian Carranza, who opposes school choice and is running against Lujan, told the Tribune. She added that “the No. 1 issue at the door is public education and the voucher fight.”

Texas Republicans have responded by saying anti-voucher Democrats are simply doing the bidding of teachers’ unions, who were a large reason for COVID-19 shutdowns.

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Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Abbott, said “when it comes to education, parents matter, and families deserve the ability to choose the best education opportunities for their children.”

“If Democrats want to make their opposition to parental empowerment a central theme of their campaign, good luck,” he continued, adding they are “fighting for teacher unions and their self-serving agenda, instead of the Texans they claim to represent.”