AUSTIN, Texas — Texas' Republican leaders openly feuded on Monday as state lawmakers returned to the Capitol for a third special session.
The already rocky relationship between House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sunk to a new low Monday. Patrick called for Phelan to resign, while Phelan slammed the Senate leader for taking money from a political group with newly revealed ties to a white supremacist, according to the Texas Tribune.
"I feel pretty good right now. I'm not going to resign, and I have full support of the Texas House," Phelan said Monday.
The battling between legislative leaders could affect the chances for Gov. Greg Abbott's priority for this special session: School choice, also known as private school vouchers.
Denise Davis and other East Texas educators drove to Austin to oppose the so-called vouchers.
“I'm here at the Capitol with other educators to talk to our representatives and to express to them how important this is,” Davis said. She teaches art at Lufkin High School.
Davis says the state needs to pump more money into the public school system, including increasing teacher pay. She doesn’t support a school choice program.
“I am totally against it. Public dollars should stay with public schools,” Davis said. “If they don't have enough money to pay us right now what they should be paying us and funding our budgets the way they should be funding it, which is a constitutional issue, then I don't see why they should take money away from public schools and give it to private.”
A voucher program would allow parents to use public school dollars to send their child to private school. The Texas House has repeatedly rejected vouchers, with rural Republicans joining Democrats to fight against any program that would take money away from public schools. Phelan says teachers will have to get raises for any voucher program to have a chance.
“We’re meeting two, three times a day, across the House spectrum, especially with these rural Republicans who want to get comfortable with this idea,” Phelan said. “But school finance is very important to this. The governor knows that.”
Rep. Steve Allison, R-San Antonio, says the votes still aren’t there in the House to get vouchers passed. And, he says his constituents aren’t in favor of vouchers.
“I think the voucher system is so inherently wrong, and it'd be unfair and further divisive of our culture and our education process,” Rep. Allison said. “I can't support it.”
Rep. Allison added that lawmakers should be focusing on increasing the basic allotment, raising teacher and staff compensation and improving school safety.
“We've provided choice after choice after choice programs and continue to do so in the public sector: Magnet schools, charter schools, specialized schools,” Rep. Allison said. “I think we have plenty of opportunities to provide every opportunity in the world for each and every child. And we can do that in the public sector… And if we're talking about [vouchers that are worth] $8,000, $9,000, whatever, where do those kids go? And I've asked that over and over in San Antonio and don't have an answer where anybody could go. So I just don't see vouchers working. I think it's unfair to the public education system that is so foundational to our system and our economy, that we've got to continue to shore it up and continue to improve it.”
Hundreds of Texans gathered at the Capitol over the weekend to protest vouchers, and Democrats from both chambers spoke out against the program on Monday.
“We will never get behind Governor Abbott's voucher scam that is really just welfare for the well-off,” said Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin.
Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, championed school choice legislation during the regular session. He’s carrying two separate bills during the third special session. One would create a school choice program and another would increase public school funding, which would include a teacher pay bump.
“Across the board, [the] teacher pay raise will be $3,000. In the regular session, it was two [$2,000],” Sen. Creighton said.
Davis says a $3,000 raise isn’t enough. She says a 30% pay bump, or even more, would make a big difference.
“My concern is I'm seeing the new teachers questioning whether or not they're going to stay in the profession,” Davis said. “So if they really want to have a public education system, they need to step up and fund it.”