Convenience Big Store: Clock is ticking and Greg Abbott still doesn’t have votes for vouchers

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Abbott makes final push for school choice

With less than four weeks left in the Texas Legislature session, Gov. Greg Abbott might need to pull a rabbit out of his hat if he's going to get a school choice program with a private school component passed this year.

As my Texas Take podcast partner Scott Braddock and I have discussed, Abbott is way short of the votes he needs to get any type of voucher bill out of the Texas House. Many lawmakers, particularly in rural areas, still worry the plan will weaken existing public schools.

That brings us to last night in Houston where Abbott didn't have a rabbit but he did have former boxing champ George Foreman and furniture store owner Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. They were trying to motivate the crowd at the R.O.C.K. Church to pressure their state representatives to pass the school choice plan.

"If you do that, it may be you who is responsible for bringing school choice to the great state of Texas," Abbott said.

But it was hardly all smooth sailing as Sam González Kelly pointed out in his story. There were protesters outside and even some who disrupted Abbott's speech inside.

Jeremy Wallace
Texas politics reporter
jeremy.wallace@houstonchronicle.com

Who's up, who's down

Up: Transgender Texans.

This is certainly a short-lived status, but thanks to technical issues a Texas House bill to ban transition medical care for transgender youth had to be postponed. Taylor Goldenstein reports that House Republican leaders already have fixed the issue and are promising another attempt to pass it later this week.

Down: Atheists.

The Texas Legislature is moving several different bills that could require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in each classroom, create periods of prayer or Bible study at schools and allow chaplains to be hired as school employees. Edward McKinley reports they are all being packaged as a way to counter crime and violence in schools.

What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.

What else is going on in Texas

Sen. Ted Cruz faces 2024 challenge from Dallas Rep. Colin Allred

The Dallas civil rights attorney and former NFL linebacker launched his campaign with a video accusing Cruz of cheering on "the mob" in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

76 percent of Texans support raising AR-15 purchase age, poll finds

The poll also found that Texans' attitude toward promoting racial diversity has plummeted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Record power demand, brownouts possible this summer in extreme scenarios, ERCOT says

The state's grid operator is forecasting peak demand of nearly 83,000 megawatts, topping last summer's record-breaking — and reliability-testing — demand.

Sutherland Springs shooting lawsuit settles for $144 million

The deal will pay more than 75 plaintiffs who sued the U.S. Air Force for failing to report the gunman's violent record to an FBI database years before he shot up the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs in 2017.

Pick of the day

That's the number of troops the Biden administration has announced they are sending to the southern border to join another 2,500 National Guard troops already there. And of course, Texas has stationed thousands of the Texas Guard along its portion of the border.

What else I'm reading

Chinese migrants are increasingly showing up at the Texas border. David Brown, the host of the Texas Standard public radio program, interviews Reuters reporter Echo Wang about how and why it's all happening.