Abbott’s school voucher plan now has more than enough support
DALLAS - Gov. Greg Abbott is ready to push his school voucher plan again. This time, he has a lot more support.
The Texas governor is celebrating the fact that every candidate he backed in the Texas House general election won.
Abbott said there are now more than enough votes to pass school choice in Texas, allowing taxpayer dollars to help parents pay for private school tuition.
"Our job as Texas leaders is to make sure that we're going to provide the most effective pathway options for every child in our state to be able to achieve the education that's going to be best for them and to allow their parents to be able to make that decision," said Abbott.
While Republicans held a majority in the Texas Legislature before this election cycle, many rural Republicans and Democrats banded together to vote against Abbott’s plan during the last session.
"I made sure that we would elect Republicans to the Texas House of Representatives in sufficient numbers to be able to pass a school choice plan. Just like the Texas Senate has passed many times. With the results that came in last night, there was a tidal wave of support for those House candidates that I supported. And we have more than enough members of the Texas House of Representatives elected last night, to make sure that school choice is going to pass," Abbott said.
"As some people have debated the issue of the past session, over the past decade, they make it sound like you can't have both school choice and robust public schools. That's completely false. The reality is, we can have the best public schools in America and also have school choice at the very same time, it does not have to be one of the other, and it's wrong to pit one against the other."
In the Texas House District 80 race, former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin declared victory over his Democratic opponent. District 80 borders Mexico. McLaughlin will be the first Republican to represent that district in more than 20 years.
READ MORE: Texas Governor Greg Abbott to hold school choice news conference on Wednesday
In Corpus Christi, Republican Denise Villalobos flipped Texas House District 34. That gives Republicans control of at least 88 of the 150 seats in the Texas House.
In the Texas Senate, Republican Adam Hinojosa is beating incumbent Democrat Morgan Lamantia with over 95% of the votes counted. It’s the only battleground of the upper chamber.