Photo: Peter Dazeley
Democrats have campaigned aggressively against school choice nationally, including here in Texas. So now that they’ve taken power statewide in the November 3rd blue wave, will they actually move to end the Texas voucher program?
If they do, it might be considered a betrayal of the affordability message that the Democrats campaigned on nationally. As the Heritage Foundation’s Corey DeAngelis points out: “80 percent of the families using these scholarships, the school choice program in Texas, they were at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.”
That would mean that by ending the program, Democrats would be taking high-quality private educations away from middle- and lower-class families, and forcing them back into public options that may not be as successful.
DeAngelis went on to say that cutting the program could end up costing Texas Democrats in future elections. “Now that school choice exists, it’s gonna be really hard for Democrats to undo it, because they’re gonna suffer the wrath of parents,” he said.
DeAngelis pointed to the spate of elections nationwide in the early 2020s, in which left-wing officials and school board members nationwide lost their seats thanks to parents outraged over the state of public education during the COVID pandemic.
He said: “I really hope that the Democrats learned something during the COVID-era school board fights, about candidates who oppose parental rights losing a few years ago.”