Sen. Cruz announces ad buy to ‘cheer’ on school choice in Texas
As the fight for school choice enters a critical phase in the Texas Legislature, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is spending $250,000 on ads promoting school choice and pro-school choice lawmakers in his home…
As the fight for school choice enters a critical phase in the Texas Legislature, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is spending $250,000 on ads promoting school choice and pro-school choice lawmakers in his home state.
Calling it “the Civil Rights issue of the 21st Century,” Cruz, a Republican who has been in the Senate since 2013, visited the Capitol in Austin Thursday “to cheer the House on.”
“Right now, the House of Representatives is taking up what I think is the single biggest issue before the Texas Legislature, and that is school choice,” he said, according to KXAN. “This is a battle that matters, and I’m very proud of the leadership I’m seeing here in the state Legislature.”
Cruz’s ads praise 14 House Republicans, including Speaker Dustin Burrows, The Texas Tribune reports.
Burrows honored Cruz Thursday on the House floor for his work on behalf of school choice.
The House is considering HB 3, which would establish a $1 billion school choice program in Texas. The Senate has passed school choice bills in recent years, but they have died in the House.
This year, Burrows and Gov. Greg Abbott say they have the votes needed to approve school choice.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the plan by the first week of April after Abbott, a Republican, designated it one of his priority measures for the Legislature, meaning lawmakers are barred from acting on non-priority measures until early next month.
Cruz also refuted recent claims by U.S. Rep. Al Green, a Houston Democrat who was censured after he disrupted President Donald Trump’s recent speech to Congress, that school choice would turn the country back toward segregated schools.
“I recall a conversation with a father – African-American man who had a six-year-old daughter. The school she was going to was not teaching, it was failing and there was violence,” Cruz said, according to KXAN. “And I remember – this was a big man, he was about 6’7″ – I remember he was crying. ‘Why won’t they let me send my little girl to school?’ This is a civil rights issue because in Texas, predominately the children being failed by our system are disproportionately Hispanic children and African-American children.”
The Senate passed its version of school choice, SB 2, in February. The House bill must clear that body’s Public Education Committee before coming to the floor for a vote.
