Desperate Dems launch scare tactics involving homeschoolers to try and stop Texas school choice bill

Democrats in Texas are pulling out all the stops to prevent a sweeping school choice bill from passing.

The latest tactic is to tell homeschool families that if the measure doesn’t pass, the Legislature will impose new regulations on homeschoolers.

School choice advocates and lawmakers say that is patently false.

The controversy stems from an email sent by state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Canton, who said the state has the authority to regulate homeschoolers regardless of whether they receive public funds. Hall did not say the state would regulate the homeschooling community or had any desire to do so; he was simply stating a fact. 

The issue matters because the school choice bill, SB 2, would grant participating homeschool families $2,000 toward their child’s education. Students attending traditional private schools would receive $10,000 and students with special needs $11,500. 

Some in the homeschool community oppose school choice because they believe that taking government money will lead to more government oversight. 

But the Texas Home School Coalition maintains that of the 32 states with school choice, totaling more than 70 programs, none have increased regulations on homeschooling after passing those programs. 

Even Robert Bortins, head of Classical Conversations, a popular homeschooling curriculum provider, said states are hesitant to add regulations to homeschoolers because of backlash from homeschool moms. Bortins, who opposes school choice, admits that states like Texas probably won’t go that route, especially since even lawmakers in liberal California have been hesitant to do so. 

“Whenever I talk to legislators, they do say that, ‘well, we could regulate you now if you wanted,’ and I say ‘Well, you’ve not seen angry homeschooling moms, have you?’” he said in a video posted on X. “You want to piss off 1,000 homeschool moms in your district that are going to go knock on doors and make sure that you’re primaried and don’t get elected again? That’s not something that you want to do.” 

Texas’ $1 billion school choice proposal passed the Senate this month and faces a battle in the House, where Republicans must unify their ranks, including members from rural areas where school choice has traditionally been a harder sell. 

The House has six more weeks to act on the bill, which Gov. Greg Abbott declared a priority at the start of the legislative session. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have put their weight behind the proposal, calling it “the civil rights issue of our time,” and saying that it “must now pass.” 

Attacks on the measure are picking up, including allegations that the state hasn’t raised funding for public schools since 2019. 

However, Abbott, a Republican who supports school choice as well as provisions to raise public school teacher pay, said the state added $6 billion in education funding this past year, including for school safety, instructional materials and teacher health insurance, and has an additional $5 billion planned for this year.  

“Texas fully funds our schools,” the Republican governor wrote on X.