Texas Tribune / Evan L’Roy
Gov. Greg Abbott speaks in regards to the current 88th Legislative Session to an viewers on the Texas Public Coverage Basis places of work on June 2, 2023. Abbott ended the occasion by promising to name a particular session for college alternative, after the then-current particular session for property tax resolves.
Gov. Greg Abbott has notified the Texas Legislature {that a} third particular session will start on Oct. 9.
A Sept. 26 letter signed by Abbott and addressed to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Home Speaker Dade Phelan, didn’t point out the main focus of this particular session. However the governor has stated repeatedly the following particular session would deal with public training, together with the problems of faculty vouchers and public college funding.
Abbott’s determination comes almost 4 months after lawmakers failed this yr to both allocate new cash to assist college districts make ends meet amid rampant inflation and a unstable economic system, or attain an settlement on “college alternative,” a moniker for proposals that might enable mother and father to make use of taxpayer {dollars} to pay for his or her youngsters’s personal education. Faculty alternative has been considered one of Abbott’s high legislative priorities this yr.
Lawmakers are to return to Austin on Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. This yr’s common legislative session led to a stalemate between the Home and Senate over training financial savings accounts, a voucher-like program that might enable mother and father entry to a state-managed account to pay for personal college tuition and different academic bills.
The Senate tried other ways to go an training financial savings account program — even tacking it on to the one college finance invoice the Home superior throughout the session — however Democrats and rural Republicans blocked it from transferring ahead within the decrease chamber.
In the long run, college districts have paid the worth. Many college officers have needed to undertake deficit budgets, which means their expenditures outweigh their revenues. Some college districts have dipped into their financial savings to supply lecturers minimal raises, steadiness their budgets or just to maintain the lights on. Others are contemplating closing campuses all collectively to save cash.
The connection between the Home and Senate was additionally additional strained after the Senate acquitted Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton on impeachment costs introduced on by the Home, which may make it much more tough for the chambers to achieve an settlement on college vouchers. However Abbott lately stated that if lawmakers fail to go a faculty alternative proposal, he received’t hesitate to carry lawmakers again. And he promised political penalties for individuals who get in the best way.
“If we don’t win in that first particular session, we can have one other particular particular session and we’ll come again once more,” Abbott stated final week in a tele-town corridor in regards to the challenge. “After which if we don’t win that point, I believe it’s time to ship this to the voters themselves.”
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune.
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