The Stars At Night Are Dull And Dim
Greg Abbott's fight for school vouchers in Texas resumes, fitting right in with the Republican demolition derby writ large.
Naturally, there’s been a lot of attention on Republicans at the national level the last few months. Between the election, its fallout, the inauguration, and the cabinet hearings, witnessing this level of shithousery in real time has been hard to turn away from. With all eyes on the White House and Capitol Hill, some of us were, however briefly, directed away from an unfortunate reality: we’ve got these same idiots right here at home too. The descent into fascism knows no bounds, and a key piece of that project includes the dismantling of our education system. At the federal level, there’s only so much they can do. The Department of Education already has limited oversight as it is, and states and municipalities have a significantly larger influence over our school systems than anything else. This makes Greg Abbott’s ongoing crusade against Texas public schools all the more salient.
Voucher programs fit into the larger Republican playbook the same way a lot of their more multifaceted policy positions do. At face value, school vouchers don’t appear to be immediately harmful to anyone in particular, and the policy is presented under the pretense of simply allowing more choice to parents and students. Vouchers allow the free market to dictate how education should operate in this country. When I hear stuff like this, I’m reminded of a Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin’s dad is perplexed by the sheer number of peanut butter options at the grocery store.
Seriously, who demands this much choice? Especially when it comes to education. Schools need real help, not competition. In their pursuit of money-making opportunities, Republicans have left public education out to dry. In Texas, for example, Gov. Abbott has been holding public school funding hostage in exchange for the passage of his voucher legislation. There has not been a significant increase in state funding for public education in 5 years, a reality only worsened by inflation.
For now, Greg Abott serves as a bit of a side villain within the larger roster of Republican cronies. But his relentless fight for school vouchers, in the face of very real bipartisan opposition mind you, is one that lends him a particular chunk of political capital. School vouchers are not a new idea, but they have recently seen an influx of implementation. Since 2021, 15 GOP led states have either established or expanded voucher programs. If Abbott gets his way, Texas would be the largest state to do so.1 Further, his ideal voucher plan is universal; making every student in the state eligible for the program. It would be a massive victory for one of the more slimy grifts in the Republican pantheon of grifts. Just another debilitating right-wing policy proposal that is obfuscated by the allure of freedom and choice.
Pulling Back The Curtain
Over the last 5 or so years, the Republican narrative surrounding public education has focused on a few key criticisms. Most of their talking points involve some combination of parents’ rights, the freedom to choose, liberal indoctrination, or critical race theory. School vouchers work as a comprehensive policy in that their implementation encompasses all of these things in some form or another. By empowering private schools, education becomes progressively commodified. Parents are then provided with public funds to encourage their child’s removal from the public school turning them gay, to their placement in a local Christian Academy. Did I mention these public funds are also entirely attributable to religious institutions as well? The unconstitutional nature of something like this is actually a bit of a tough sell, especially to the anti-handout party. It would explain why Gov. Abbott failed to get anything passed in both Texas’ previous legislative session and an additional 4 special sessions. Rural congresspersons know that school vouchers don’t just provide more choice; they actively harm public schools and students in the process.
This is partly because private schools are not subject to the same accountability measures that public schools are, and that’s the whole point. Without proper accountability, private schools are not beholden to any sort of academic standard and are free from discriminatory oversight. If it seems too impossible to be true, the genesis of voucher programs is openly rooted in the response to Brown v. Board of Education. You can’t make this stuff up. North Carolina, a state that already has two different statewide voucher programs, offers insight into what these ideas look like in practice. This report gives us a more detailed look, but the best example they provide is from Grace Christian Academy in Sanford, NC. As a part of the application and selection process, Grace requires a tour of the campus with the applicant’s family.
“We love getting to know our families personally, and a tour is a great way to ensure your family and our school are a good fit for one another.”2
This kind of harmful ambiguity is present within every facet of school voucher systems. Even the item itself, a voucher, is completely nebulous and raises no immediate red flags when you hear about it in passing. If for some reason you’re still on the fence about how a school could get away with discrimination in the year 2025, it’s because it exists in between the lines.
There’s also the money side of things. At the risk of sounding like the very budget hawks I’ve derided in the past, the cost of a universal voucher program that Gov. Abbott wants to implement isn’t the main issue here. It’s the diversion of those funds away from public schools and into the hands of for-profit schooling charlatans. In the last legislative session, the initial bill that was being debated allotted $500 million to craft a voucher program. This time around, that amount has doubled to $1 billion. $1 billion that could be spent on items of actual importance like healthcare, infrastructure, social safety nets, or any myriad of public resources that are desperate for attention. As Gov. Abbott grows increasingly desperate to pass a universal voucher program, other legislation bears the brunt of that anxiety. In 2023, he vetoed at least a dozen other bills, claiming they could wait until “after education freedom gets passed.” All of this culminates in the continued degradation of our public school systems, making the $10,000 or so the state would give you to attend private school all the more enticing. Assuming they even accept you at all.
The Bigger Picture
On January 14th, the 89th Texas Legislative Session began with the primary objective of passing some form of school voucher legislation. The big difference this time is that Gov. Abbott worked tirelessly over the last year to flip the seats he needed in order to rummage up support for vouchers. Over a dozen anti-voucher Republican seats were replaced with pro-voucher congresspersons, along with some Democratic seats that were crucial in the opposition effort in the House. The fight continues, and it’s unclear what the final product will look like, but it is beginning to look more like a matter of when than if.
What makes this fight so obscene is how much it has maligned public schooling in the process. Oftentimes, supporters of voucher programs believe that public schools are failing them. Why might that be? Just to reiterate: Greg Abbott has been withholding public education funding increases for years now in order to get his voucher legislation passed. Even beyond the money, the narratives surrounding American public education being regurgitated by Republicans do just as much harm. It’s always been the Republican game plan to undermine education, but the last 5 or so years have been relentless and methodical. Highlighting public schools as a focal point for the country’s failures is all part of a larger effort to tip the scales in favor of their preferred version of social stratification.
Education is a foundational metric in determining future outcomes and quality of life for individuals. By stripping public education for parts and gatekeeping private school for those only deemed worthy, Republicans have managed to turn education into a privilege meant for only an elite few. This isn’t to say that education isn’t already like that. It is. Low-income school districts are constantly fighting with cities and states for more resources. Higher education is unequivocally guilty of this and has been for centuries. The very existence of the Ivy League is proof of that. But the scale at which Republicans are aiming to uproot public education only serves to exacerbate a growing problem.
It’s worth mentioning that the $10,000 amount that Gov. Abbott wants to delegate to students feels arbitrary. Some private schools do charge less than that for annual tuition, but plenty more charge 2 to 3 times that. This doesn’t even account for transportation, school supplies, and other expenses. Again: none of that matters if they don’t even let you in. Greg Abbott is no stranger to misguided and cruel policy, though. Before the draconian abortion ban and migrant displacements, he was advocating for shit like banning sex toys. With Gov. Abbott’s 2015 gubernatorial victory coinciding with Trump’s eventual victory in 2016 (and now 2024), the emboldenment of the far-right in America has lent credence to the continued advocacy of things like school choice. Despite their best efforts to protect the children, they sure do seem pretty good at only protecting their own.
The Texas legislature will continue to meet and debate this week as SB2, the bill containing the voucher-like education savings account, goes to the Senate Education Committee for a vote and then (presumably) onto the full chamber. Despite the fact that the legislature cannot pass bills within the first 60 days, Gov. Abbott is sure to designate the bill as an “emergency item,” bypassing this rule and putting SB2 to a vote sooner than later.
It feels futile in this day and age to point out hypocrisy among politicians, but in the event that this passes, it’s important to remember a few things. It’s important to remember that taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize religious institutions. The same institutions that receive state tax exemptions. It’s important to remember that the free market, the thing that sends us into economic recession every 10-20 years, will be dictating your child’s education. But most of all, it’s important to remember that Republicans are fighting for this, more than anything else, under the pretense of the right to choose…
I should also remark that the views I have expressed here are mine only, and do not represent that of my employer.
I’m gauging this by population, gdp, and k-12 student enrollment. In all three metrics, Texas would be the highest ranked state to have a voucher program.