Convenience Big Store: Abbott's voucher push stalls

Abbott still seeking playcall to punch-in vouchers

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott said vouchers were on the "one-yard line" in the Texas Legislature and he pledged not to be like the Longhorns earlier this month in failing to get the ball into the end zone.

Well, at least so far, it looks like the Texas House is making a goal-line stand.

The Texas House won't take up a private school voucher bill until Gov. Greg Abbott adds public education funding to the special session agenda, Rep. Brad Buckley, the House's top education policymaker, said in a Thursday interview.

When asked whether the House Public Education Committee would meet next week to consider the measure, Buckley said: "We can't do anything until (the governor) expands the call."

Buckley's comments are in line with Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, who recently suggested that a more limited voucher bill could pass that chamber only in exchange for increases to public school funding that include teacher pay raises.

Plus: Do vouchers actually work, anyway?

The answer is complicated, but check out our piece delving into the decades of research on the subject and the early results from other states with similar programs.

Edward McKinley, state government reporter

edward.mckinley@houstonchronicle.com

Who's up, who's down

Up: Creative protesting.

Have you ever felt like your elected officials were just a bunch of clowns? Well, Stacey Alderete in South San Antonio did, and she took it one step further: donning a polka-dotted top hat, rainbow wig and three-ring makeup at a school board meeting.

Down: Feral hogs.

Imagine being so hated that scientists engineered a poison targeted specifically at you. Well, scientists are working on this for feral hogs in Texas, a rampant invasive species in Texas that sows chaos by destroying property and crops across the state.

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

What else is going on in Texas

A classroom at The Gathering Place charter school taken on September 18, 2023.

Photo by: Photo Courtesy Of The Gathering Place's Facebook Page

S.A. charter school co-founder resigns due to 'breach of trust'

An exodus of leaders and employees at the San Antonio charter school includes the principal and special education director.

Within the first 24 hours of a new campaign to stop drivers with illegal fake paper plates from skirting toll road charges and vehicle registration fees, police have made 24 citations for violations on the Hardy Toll Road.

Photo by: Constable Alan Rosen Harris County Pct. 1

Man gets 5 years for helping sell 700K fake temporary Texas tags

Octavian Ocasio, of New York, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison while his three alleged co-conspirators face charges in connection to a fake Texas paper plate and buyer's tags scheme.

Thousands of people gather outside of the Israeli Embassy to protest Isreal's ongoing attacks on Gaza in the Isreal-Hamas war on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, in Houston.

Photo by: Raquel Natalicchio/Staff Photographer

Thousands protest attacks on Gaza outside Houston's Israeli embassy

Protestors said the protest was motivated by a Tuesday explosion at a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds of people.

Cora Aguirre, 12, smiles as she meets Gov. Greg Abbott after a rally about school vouchers Tuesday March 21, 2023, at Cypress Christian School in Houston. Abbott and his allies say the voucher effort is about school choice. Critics say the vouchers would doom public schools by drawing state funding away from them.

Photo by: Jon Shapley/Staff Photographer

As Texas lawmakers consider private school vouchers, do they work?

The current proposal in Texas would allow parents of schoolchildren to apply for access to $8,000 that they could spend on private school tuition or other expenses.

Pick of the day

Matt Rinaldi, left, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, asks questions of the parlimentarian and rules officials during the third and final day of this year's Republican Party of Texas Convention Saturday, June 18, 2022, held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX.

Photo by: Michael Wyke / Contributor

It's not just the Texas GOP that's been beset by infighting of late, but also the next generation. The fallout is ongoing of the leader of an influential conservative political group meeting with an avowed neo-Nazi, but the fight also took place writ-miniature between the Texas Young Republican Federation and a rival group several months back. Read Hearst's Cayla Harris piece taking you inside the spats.

What else I'm reading

From The New York Times: A year and a half after Gov. Greg Abbott began busing newly arrived migrants from Texas to large Democratic cities whose leaders had pledged to provide sanctuary, the state has now sent more than 50,000 migrants to destinations across the United States, helping to provoke a shelter crisis in several cities that has reshaped the debate over immigration.