Abbott Enlists Ducey for School Choice Pitch
Despite Adverse Effect on the Arizona Budget Capitol Inside
March 24, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott and legislative leaders are bringing in outside reinforcements in a scramble to keep a school choice plan afloat in Austin with plans to appear on Tuesday at the Texas Capitol with a former Arizona governor who's been a trailblazer for the vouchers movement in the U.S.
Abbott announced on Monday that former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will join him at a press conference that will feature Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows along with lawmakers that the governor did not identify. Abbott said the quartet of Republicans will focus on "the importance of passing school choice for all Texas families"
during the regular session here in 2025.
Ducey had been Arizona's top leader when it enacted the nation's first school choice program that would become a model for those that other red states have subsequently adopted.
But the universal vouchers program has been a source of trouble in the western state since Ducey left the governor's office in 2023.
Arizona lawmakers were forced to slash the state budget last year as a consequence of unforeseen spending on private education that culminated in a revenue shortfall of $1.4 billion in 2024.
Over a dozen public schools in Arizona have closed as casualties of declining enrollment that's been attributed in large part to vouchers. Abbott and his fellow members of the Texas power triad must decide if they want Ducey simply for public relations and cheerleading or the wisdom that he can offer on potential pitfalls, land mines and warning signs like those that Arizona leaders and lawmakers missed when they approved school choice there.
Ducey and his GOP allies in Phoenix promised that vouchers would be in big demand by families with students in public schools in low-income neighborhoods. But the opposite has been the case - with almost all of the applications for public subsides known as educational savings accounts coming from families with children who are already attending private schools.
The Texas governor has attempted to gloss over the vast potential for complications and cost overruns with a steady stream of blanket denials on criticism that he characterizes as myths. Abbott as an example contended on Saturday that vouchers foes have falsely claimed that school choice would "defund" public schools "especially in rural Texas - due to enrollment decline."
Abbott issued a rebuttal that said the claim wasn't true without any evidence to support a position that he's repeated frequently with an increasingly defensive posture on the issue that he says he has sufficient votes to pass this year.
"A majority of rural, urban, and suburban Texans support school choice," Abbott said in a post on X. . Public schools across Texas will not be defunded by school choice."
The enlistment of Ducey for a school choice pitch at a press conference appears to be the latest sign that Abbott and his allies at the Capitol are more nervous now than they've been since Abbott announced that he had 76 votes locked down on vouchers. The governor raised eyebrows by refusing to wait with the prediction of victory on vouchers until he had some sort of a cushion in the event of defections from rural House Republican who vowed their support but could be wavering now.
Abbott argued for months that lawmakers had an obligation to pass a school choice bill because it had broad support on both sides of the aisle. But recent polling in Texas has shown that destination casinos and THC are more popular with voters here than vouchers. But Republicans here have ignored the will of the people on gambling and cannabis despite growing support in polls.
more to come ...
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