Greg Abbott Scolded by Home State Newspaper

Texas Governor Greg Abbott was criticized by a home state newspaper for how he has dealt with the issue of education funding.

Abbott spent more than a year trying to get his voucher program passed by the Texas House of Representatives but saw it rejected by the end of 2023.

His “school choice” plan would see families given state money to pay for their children’s education at private schools, with the goal to give parents more control over what their kids are being taught.

Critics said it would take money away from public schooling, which is in “financial distress,” the Austin American-Statesman wrote.

Opinion writers lambasted Abbott for rejecting a call by 39 House Democrats on May 13 for a special session “to address the critical need for increased education funding across the state in response to pressing financial challenges facing Texas.”

State Representative Jon Rosenthal and his colleagues said they want the governor to include “an increase in basic and school safety funding for the special session.”

“In the current state budget,” they wrote, “$5 billion remains unspent for public education, along with a surplus projected to grow to $21.3 billion by the next legislative session.”

Abbott responded the same day, saying that the school package he worked on last year “would have achieved exactly what [they] seek.”

He wrote: “To be clear, there are several reasons why some public schools are facing budget shortfalls. One is that public schools received extraordinary funding from the federal government for COVID recovery, and that federal funding is no longer available. This means schools that use this funding for ongoing expenses are facing a shortfall.

“In school districts across the state, schools have identified that another reason they have less revenue is that they have fewer students enrolled in classes: many parents across the state with whom I have visited complain about their growing dissatisfaction with the ideological leanings of education delivered by some public schools.”

But the Austin American-Statesman said Abbott was “lambasting schools for deficits” and scolding him for “blaming the funding freeze on lawmakers who rightly balked at sharing their voters’ public education funds with private schools.”

“In truth, under Abbott’s influence, legislation for public school funding was pulled from a vote after House members voted to strip out an attached voucher plan,” the publication said.

It quoted a University of Texas associate professor specializing in education policy, David DeMatthews, who said: “The biggest reason that schools are in financial trouble now is because the state Legislature was unable to pass a bill for public school funding.”

When Abbott ended his letter to the Honorable Jon E. Rosenthal, he wrote: “Know this, my commitment to improving public schools is just as resolute as yours. To achieve our shared goal, however, it is incumbent upon you to work with your fellow House members to muster the votes in the Texas House to get it passed—something you were unwilling to do last year.”

The Austin American-Statesman said this amounted to Abbott “holding billions of school dollars hostage” unless representatives “vote for a program their voters don’t want.”

Abbott said in his letter that the Democrats who had written to him “voted to kill the package” that would have added $6 billion in school funding, including teacher pay raises and additional funding for school safety.”

Newsweek has contacted Abbott’s office via email for comment.