A new survey shows that a significant amount of rural voters reject school choice in the red state of Texas, which has struggled to pass any school choice measure as opposed to other states.
According to Michael Adams, the director of the executive master of public affairs graduate program at Texas Southern University, rural areas often have few if any private school options, and the public schools are key employers and community centers.
The survey from the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston (UH) and the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at TSU shows that 38% of rural voters support vouchers for low-income parents compared to 52% of urban voters. However, 42% of rural voters support school choice for all parents, compared to 34%.
The survey results also found almost 49% of taxpayers said they support providing vouchers to low-income parents to send their child to private schools.
Only 27% oppose vouchers.
UH stated that the survey, conducted earlier this month with 1,914 respondents, matched respondents to a sampling frame on gender, age, race, ethnicity, and education, and is representative of Texas adults.
Moreover, the survey revealed that 60% of Black Texans and 48% of White Texans support vouchers for low-income parents.
“Black voters were similarly more likely to support a proposal like Senate Bill 1, which would create $8,000 education savings accounts for families who pull their children from public schools,” UH reported.
It continued, “S.B. 1 has been approved by the Senate but is stalled in the House. The survey found 41% of voters support the bill, while 24% oppose it; 20% neither support nor oppose it.”
An updated survey from the University of Texas at Austin shows that in October 2023, 25% of rural voters “strongly support” establishing a school choice program, while only 21% “strongly oppose” them in Texas.
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The Texas Legislature is currently considering vouchers in a special session set to end Nov. 7.
Reacting to the survey results, American Federation for Children Senior Fellow Corey DeAngelis told Fox News Digital that Maine and Vermont passed school choice programs in the late 1800s because they were so rural.
“Those states gave vouchers to parents in rural areas to choose public or private schools, and they still do today. They understood over 100 years ago that not having education options was a good reason to expand opportunities, not restrict them,” he said.
While many are waiting for Texas to pass a school choice bill after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pushed the measure, the Lone Star State is struggling to join the wave of red states that made it happen.
Recently, Republican governors made significant inroads in pushing universal school choice legislation, which did not exist anywhere in the country a few years ago.
Nine states have enacted universal school choice with state Republicans leading the effort.
The call for the special session came after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on school choice, which has been one of Abbott’s top legislative priorities this year.
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Per the Texas Tribune, the state senate tried different ways to pass an education savings account program, but Democrats and rural Republicans blocked their efforts.
DeAngelis called out State Rep. Travis Clardy, in particular, for voting against school choice. He argued further that Texas GOP lawmakers have been bought by “teachers unions” who don’t have any interest in supporting school choice measures.
Clardy is one of the 24 GOP lawmakers who voted against ESAs and has been at odds with Abbott over school choice.
In a recent interview discussing the matter, he told Longview News Journal that the governor is unclear on what a school choice program would look like.
“Gov. Abbott says he wants it, but he won’t tell us what he wants and what it looks like,” he said. “I’m open for innovation, but we, in the House and our rural colleagues, won’t rebel to a plan which says it will help with special needs kids, which are unique challenges to funding (for rural counties) and we need to take care of them.”
Clardy explained further that he is not convinced vouchers are a good move for public schools in rural areas where there are not many options like there are in suburban and urban communities.
Clardy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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