AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Lawmakers in the Texas House are debating the priority of public school funding bills, which include school vouchers.

After years of stalling in the state House, the controversial school voucher bill now has its best shot on Wednesday.

Gov. Greg Abbott said he has the numbers to pass the bill, but passage is not guaranteed.

Democrats are threatening to kill all proposed constitutional amendments for the rest of the legislative session unless the House puts the school voucher issue on the November election ballot for voters to decide on.

The voucher bill would give Texas families more than $10,000 yearly to send their children to private school.

Democrats and some Republicans oppose the bill, saying it will strip funding from public schools.

Protesters filled the halls of the Texas Capitol Wednesday morning, saying they want funding for public schools, not vouchers.

The legislative battle comes after years of failed attempts to pass similar bills.

Wednesday’s debate is expected to last several hours.

Voucher bills want to prioritize low-income families and be open to all, but goals might be at odds

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas lawmakers have started the process of finalizing the budget, but it wasn’t easy getting there. 

Members of the Texas House got bogged down in several debates that included: tracking undocumented immigrants, defunding the lottery, and giving AG Ken Paxton backpay.

Texas AG Ken Paxton discussion

The backstory:

Texas House members took an unexpected U-turn on what’s typically a procedural vote. The political pivot involved the process needed to finalize the state budget. 

Passing SB 1 to the Governor involves addressing differences in the House and Senate Budget Bills by drafting instructions to the budget negotiators, known as conferees. Supporters of Attorney General Ken Paxton used that process to get him backpay as payback for his impeachment acquittal in 2023.

“And if we believe that not only politicians but regular citizens are entitled to the presumption of innocence, we should truly believe that he should have been entitled to his salary during the course of his suspension. And now that he’s been acquitted, if you broke it, you bought it,” said Lewisville republican Mitch Little.

Rep. Little was on Paxton’s defense team during the impeachment trial and argued that House budget negotiators should get Paxton almost $64,000 into the final budget. 

Rep. Wes Virdell, a Republican from Brady, while discussing Little’s motion, noted the House impeachment was rejected by the Senate in 2023. But it was pointed out that state law requires the suspension of pay for a state office holder who is impeached. And no one during the discussion spoke about how Paxton, earlier this year, did not contest accusations in a whistle-blower civil lawsuit. The claims by former staff members are similar to at least three Articles of Impeachment and have resulted in a $6 million award for the plaintiffs. The Paxton payback request passed by an 88 to 56 vote.

Texas border discussion

The backstory:

Another budget rabbit hole involved a border issue. 

Last year, Gov. Abbott ordered Texas hospitals to document how much is being spent on medical treatment for undocumented immigrants. Aledo Republican Mike Olcott made a motion to put Abbott’s Order into the Budget Bill.

“A lot of these small hospitals are suffering because of overwhelming costs. And I’ll give you an example. When I spent some time at the border near Falfurious back in 2006, an emergency room, and the only emergency room in the area, had actually shut down. And the reason I was told was because they were overrun by undocumented migrants, and they went out of business. And so little children in that area in Falfurious now had to drive two and a half hours to Corpus Christi to get emergency care. That’s not right,” said Rep Olcott.

A request to include prison costs in the instructions was added to the political theater.

The undocumented immigrant count instruction was approved. 

Texas Lottery discussion

The backstory:

The fate of the Texas Lottery was also discussed.

The House budget defunds the Texas Lottery. For that cut to stick, Senate budget negotiators will have to agree with the House team. 

The instruction debate went past 1 p.m. despite the fact that the instructions were not binding. That means budget negotiators can ignore them all. 

The House Budget Negotiators are: Appropriations Chair Greg Bonnen (R) Friendswood; Appropriations Vice Chair Mary Gonzales (D) San Elizario; Rep. Armando Walle (D) Houston; Rep. Stan Kitzman (R) Pattison; and Rep. Angelia Orr (R) Itasca.

Big picture view:

House members eventually debated several notable Bills. Among them was Governor Abbott’s emergency item dealing with expanding vocational-technical programs, which passed. 

The House also approved a bill to create a new cybersecurity force.

HB 6, a Teacher’s Bill of Rights, also advanced. The legislation was drafted to address disruptive students and provide teachers with protection when disciplinary measures are taken.