DALLAS — Getting lawmakers to pass a school voucher plan is, perhaps, Gov. Greg Abbott’s top priority.
But a new poll by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) makes it clear that the issue is a political loser.
That THPF poll shows 57% of likely Texas voters surveyed oppose school vouchers while 36% support them.
If a clear majority of Texans do not support vouchers, why is the governor so hell-bent on getting them passed?
In our latest episode of Y’all-itics, the CEO of the group behind the poll, a former Republican lawmaker himself, tells the Jasons it’s politics.
“I think it’s because I do believe that if he’s able to do this, he becomes the number one candidate going into the next presidential election cycle in the post-Trump Republican Party,” Jason Villalba said.
Looking deeper at the breakdown of the statistics, vouchers are opposed by 58% of urban voters, 58% of suburban voters and 57% of rural voters.
When broken down along political lines, 77% of Democrats, 56% of independent voters and 43% of Republicans oppose vouchers.
School vouchers, or Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) as they have been rebranded, provide tax dollars to parents to send their children to private schools, should those private institutions choose to accept the additional students.
Gov. Abbott’s last proposal would give parents $10,000 in tax money per child, per year, to attend private schools.
Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives joined Democrats to defeat vouchers last year, concerned that private schools would not be accountable for how the money is spent, and worrying that public schools would lose funding.
Abbott, vowing political revenge for the legislative loss, successfully campaigned against some of the incumbent Republicans who opposed vouchers. The governor helped to defeat more than a half dozen fellow conservatives on the issue in the March primary election.
And Villalba says if vouchers were ever to pass in Texas, expect to see the dominos start falling in other states.
“If he was able to do this in Texas, the largest state in the Union with public school students, it would be monumental as far as impacting other states’ ability to put something like this in place. Other states have vouchers. Not all of them. Some of them do. But none of them on the magnitude of Texas,” Villalba told us on Y’all-itics.
That’s not the only issue they polled. The Governor – and Republicans – are winning big with the border. Listen to the full episode to find out why… and how the abortion issue played out with likely Texas voters.