Phelan Keeps Cards to Chest on Vouchers
as House Republican Cell Phones Blow Up
Capitol Inside
February 18, 2025
Former GOP Speaker Dade Phelan threw a curve into a monumental pressure ploy that Governor Greg Abbott's team coordinated when he revealed on Tuesday night that he remained undecided on a school choice plan and would keep his powder dry until he learns the details on the controversial legislation.
"I can not support a bill that does not exist nor has been heard in the Texas House," Phelan said in a post on X. "I am waiting on the House version from @BradBuckleyDVM. He is going to work diligently on this legislation as he has in the past. Details matter & we have a long way to go."
Buckley - a Salado Republican who's chaired the Public Education Committee for the past two years - will serve as the lead author on school vouchers in a lower chamber where he encountered opposition that proved to be insurmountable when he had the same role two years ago. But Phelan's deferring to the public school panel boss suggests that House leaders plan to move at a more deliberate pace on vouchers than Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick had the Republicans across the rotunda take on the fast-track measure Senate Bill 2.
New Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows has indicated that he thinks the House has the votes to pass a school choice proposal despite overwhelming opposition from Democrats. Abbott claims to have ample support from Republicans to extract a vouchers measure from the House in 2025 after leading a mildly successful charge to defeat GOP members who killed the plan two years ago in the primary elections in 2024. The Senate sent the school choice plan in SB 2 to the House last week immediately after Abbott tagged it an emergency item on which legislators would not be forced to wait.
But Patrick's hurry-up approach on vouchers has never worked as a prod for the House. Phelan, who clashed with Patrick as the speaker for two terms before Burrows, threw a flag after he and other House Republicans were bombarded in recent days with cell phone texts demanding their support for school choice. Phelan, who's chairing the Licensing & Administrative Procedures Committee on the Burrows debut leadership roster, made it clear that he wouldn't be rushed on the issue that Patrick has declared to be his number one priority for the regular session this year.
"Right now, my focus is on listening to my constituents, understanding the potential impact on our communities, and ensuring that any decision I make reflects the best interests of families and students in our district," Phelan added. "Additionally, the House's version of the school choice bill has not been filed yet, so there is no specific legislation for me to take a position on at this time."
Some House Republicans say they've been flooded with thousands of texts from people from all parts of the state. The prevailing sentiment among GOP representatives is that the governor is behind the texts that came mostly from people who are not constituents.
Phelan ran the risk of being misinterpreted with the promise to keep an open mind. Phelan's critics will take that as a sign of a potential vote of no in the making. It wasn't what the governor envisioned when he sought to lock down votes for vouchers with the cell phone message blitz.
Phelan was generally viewed as a school choice supporter even though he chose to let the House work its will and stayed out of the fight in terms of public stance. Two dozen House Republicans teamed with Democrats in the regular session in 2023 in a vote for a state budget amendment that barred spending on private school costs. The House killed a school choice bill in special session later that year with a similar number of Republicans on the same side with Democrats.
The division among the Republicans was a product of stiff resistance in rural areas that have few if any private schools that would benefit. Support for the public schools in stronger in those places as a result. But Patrick and others on the right blamed Phelan for the school choice bill's demise based on the lack of effort he made trying to pass it.
Burrows has been a more vocal vouchers supporter and expects to have sufficient backing from the Republicans this time around in a chamber where many fear another round of Abbott revenge if they defy him. But the proposal is complicated and loaded with the potential for an implosion in a conference committee. House members and senators would be blaming each other at that point.
more to come ...
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