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After working its way through the state Senate and a State House Committee, SB-7, the Texas school choice bill, will finally be debated today before the full Texas House. If passed, the bill would create savings accounts of $10,000 per student to help cover qualified private school expenses.
School choice is meant to create more competition in the education system, thereby forcing the public school system to be more competitive and responsible. Democrats have made opposing it their top priority.
Brandon Waltens with the Texas Scorecard said, "Democrats have really made this their one issue that they have wanted to fight against. If you look at what's happening in the Texas House over the last five or six years, Democrats have strongly opposed school choice legislation."
Don't expect that to change at all today. Waltens expects House Democrats to push back with everything they've got against school choice. He said, "Democrats will try to delay the bill. Just last week, they were there for the budget until 3:00-3:15 in the morning. They could try to do that again with this bill."
Another trick in the Democrats' toolbox to stop school choice would be to stage a walkout and break quorum in the House—something they did to stop school choice back in 2023. Waltens says if they try that again, there are ways the speaker can punish them.
He said, "If Democrats do walk out, there are a lot of retaliatory measures that can take place. He could strip them of their office budgets or take away their parking spots." Burrows could even go as far as to remove them from their various House committee assignments.
Waltens went on to say that he's confident that despite the likely steep Democratic opposition to school choice, some form of it will still pass in this session.