AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As the next legislative session approaches, Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority of Education Savings Accounts appears closer to becoming reality.
Abbott calls ESAs “school choice,” but opponents often describe the plan as “school vouchers.” Names aside, the debate is about letting parents use public funds to help pay for private education.
The idea of using state money to subsidize part of families’ private school expenses has been a political lightning rod in Texas for years, but the legislature is friendlier to it than ever before. After a year of legislative impasses, Abbott utilized his pulpit and campaign war chest to wage electoral war on skeptical Republicans, successfully replacing many longtime rural lawmakers with newcomers sympathetic to his school choice goals…