AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House and Senate adjourned Tuesday, ending the fourth special legislative session. House members left first without taking action on key bills the Senate passed including private school vouchers, school safety funding and teacher pay raises.
The top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott was passing a school voucher bill, which would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to private school. While it did reach the full House for a floor debate this time around, a group of rural Republicans joined Democrats in successfully stripping the language from an omnibus education bill that also included teacher pay raises. Since the governor said he wouldn’t sign a bill that did not include vouchers, the House did not move forward with passing the bill.
Among the other casualties was a Senate bill which would spend $800 million on school safety measures through 2025. It appears fighting among the top Republicans in each chamber sunk that measure.
The other bill unheard in the House would change how courts handle election challenges to amendments to the Texas Constitution. The Senate recently passed a bill aimed at speeding up the process after a series of lawsuits filed last month could upend recently approved voter propositions including property tax cuts and raises for retired teachers.
There were some legislative victories for Republicans. Both chambers approved border bills that would pump $1.5 billion into the continued construction of a border wall and a measure that would allow Texas police to arrest people who illegally cross the border from Mexico. Gov. Abbott has said he will sign both bills.
Gov. Abbott’s threatened to call lawmakers back for a fifth special session, but if and when he will do that, remains uncertain.