Opposition to Abbott’s Vouchers Plan Includes Conservatives

Brian and Happiness Roberts are not society school advocates The co-founders of the Grayson County Conservatives based in the deep-red county on the state perimeter with Oklahoma do not liken themselves to other conservatives in Texas who have long fought school voucher proposals to protect rural community schools They are organizing against Governor Greg Abbott s school voucher plan because they see themselves as the true champions of school choice True school choice already exists without establishment intrusion they wrote in a March letter to state representatives on behalf of the Grayson County Conservatives a largely online activist group urging them to vote against the voucher bill The current voucher proposal introduces ruling body control over private development erodes educational autonomy and promotes the expansion of bureaucracy the letter added Since the letter was published in mid-March a motley crew of more than conservative groups activists and eight homeschool co-ops have signed on Two-thousand more Texans also added their names according to Ecstasy Roberts The letter also quotes Allen West the Dallas County GOP chair and former Abbott gubernatorial challenger who has publicly come out against the voucher proposal Let s not do the same old political thing rushing to get something passed and then watching politicians pat themselves on the back The road to hell is paved with good intentions and if we do not clearly define what the measures of effectiveness are we will just continue sinking the ship of training The group leaders say the advocacy for the letter symbolizes the groundswell of opposition from grassroots conservatives against Abbott s no-holds-barred push to enact a voucher-style instruction savings account scheme in Texas Abbott s kind of getting flanked for taking a position that the Democrats don t like for one reason and then the conservatives don t like for a perfectly different reason Brian Roberts recounted the Texas Observer He s stuck right there in the middle with a limited base who want to put that effort in Over the past years a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans in the Texas House have successfully fended off various attempts to bring school vouchers to the state bulk lately withstanding an onslaught of special sessions in in which Abbott tried to ram his priority ordinance through the lower chamber The governor then proceeded to break the back of that anti-voucher coalition by launching a targeted primary offensive in that ultimately ousted Republican House incumbents who d held their ground replacing them with more hard-right candidates Abbott s political firebombing was financed by a billionaire hedge-fund investor from Pennsylvania named Jeff Yass who gave the governor million including an initial million check that was the largest campaign contribution in Texas history Having purchased himself what he s claimed to be a solid pro-voucher majority in the Texas House Abbott has insisted for the past several months that his top political priority is as good as passed He s tried to cast Democrats as the only ones standing in the way of vouchers and has largely ignored or worked to quash any signs of dissent from within his own party But as voucher ordinance has advanced further than ever this session numerous conservatives are urging their state representatives including the first-term hardliners who owe their seats to Abbott to vote against voucher bill So far the Republican House members who ve signed on to vouchers have shown no signs of fracturing But the strength of those numbers will be put to the test on Wednesday as the House is set to take up the bill Senate Bill on the floor Last week Abbott touted on social media We have the votes We ll make it happen as early as next week But in the face of growing conservative opposition Abbott appears to be again leaning hard on GOP members On Monday the Texas House Republican Caucus reportedly sent out an email to members informing them the governor is meeting with them before the floor debate Wednesday According to the Quorum Review several Republicans mentioned that Abbott had already been calling selected lawmakers into his office to threaten vetoes of their unrelated bills if any of them offer amendments or vote for changes to the bill on the floor The outlet disclosed that as a great number of as GOP and Democratic representatives help adding an amendment that would put vouchers on the ballot for a statewide referendum this fall Democrats are also reportedly threatening to block passage of any constitutional amendments which require a two-thirds majority vote unless the House votes to put vouchers on the ballot The list of conservatives who have signed onto the Grayson County Conservatives letter is long Signers include more than precinct chairs from several county GOP parties including Tarrant Rusk Denton Parker and Collin counties as well as members of Moms for Liberty Leigh Wambsganss the chief communications officer for Patriot Mobile and Julie McCarty CEO of the True Texas Project Both Moms for Liberty and Patriot Mobile have been key drivers of the right s takeover of local school boards The True Texas Project formerly known as the NE Tarrant Tea Party represents an extremist reactionary faction of the conservative movement in Texas and is part of the oil billionaire Tim Dunn s political architecture McCarty s endorsement even though she believes the bill will pass no matter what is an apparent break from her group s donors who have long bankrolled efforts including through the Texas Population Strategy Foundation where Dunn is a board member to pass school vouchers and dismantle inhabitants teaching in Texas Hollie Plemmons a conservative activist and Tarrant County GOP precinct chair is also one of the signers She s been at the Capitol advocating against school vouchers every week since the Senate first took citizens testimony on its voucher bill back in January She mentioned she also regularly meets lobbyists from influential pro-voucher conservative groups including the Texas Inhabitants Initiative Foundation American Federation for Children and Americans for Prosperity They re constantly here Plemmons described the Observer saying the groups frequently check in with Republican House members who ve signed on to the voucher bill to make sure they re all still on board As a mom of three Plemmons disclosed she s used all of the available options of school choice that in the present exist in Texas population schools homeschool and a Christian private school But the moneyed voucher interests largely coming in from outside the state don t represent what her family necessities I don t want the regime strings she commented referring to the voucher bills provisions that would require participating private schools to submit students demographic and test results figures to the state Suzanne Bellsnyder a political consultant and owner of two small newspapers from the rural Panhandle town of Spearman is another leading voice in the anti-voucher campaign Conservatives who oppose school vouchers are principled conservatives she commented not transactional conservatives who are dependent on the Wilks-Dunn money Bellsnyder is worried that the costs for the voucher plan billed at billion the first biennium and projected to grow to over billion by aren t sustainable Rural Texas will be the first place that gets sacrificed when the state doesn t have funds she warned If Abbott succeeds in passing vouchers activists like Bellsnyder and Plemmons have vowed to take a page out the governor s playbook and target pro-voucher legislators in the GOP primaries We need to be replacing these elected authorities that are going to vote for something because of their donors because Abbott reported them to because they want Abbott s advocacy in the next primary Plemmons reported The post Opposition to Abbott s Vouchers Plan Includes Conservatives appeared first on The Texas Observer