Texas Dems eye lawsuit over school choice, GOP welcomes fight

Texas Democrats are considering a lawsuit to stop the state’s recently passed school choice program, CBS Texas reports, but Republicans are “glad they’re doing it.”

Party Chairman Kendall Scudder told the channel Democrats had few options besides the courts after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the $1 billion education savings account bill into law earlier this month.

“There isn’t a lot that we can do on the policy front other than trying to litigate, which you very well may see,” he said. “We’re going to do everything and use every tool within our wheelhouse to try to protect community public schools from this onslaught of billionaires that are trying to keep our kids uneducated so they can keep their wages low.”

But Scudder trying to paint school choice as a justice issue might play directly into Republicans’ hands. While Democrats have long painted educational choice as “welfare for the rich,” most programs – including Texas’ – give preference to low- and middle-income students, as well as those with special needs.

The state will fund about 100,000 scholarships starting in 2026-27, and with more than 5 million public school students in the state, it’s likely the bulk of those will go to priority groups, not upper-income students.

State Republican Chairman Abraham George criticized Democrats for what a lawsuit would communicate.

“So the messaging to those parents is, ‘Well, your kids are stuck in a failing school because you cannot afford to send them to a private school or a charter school or something else,’” George told CBS. “So if that’s what they want to take to the court and to the public square, I’m glad they’re doing it because that will get more people to come to the Republican side and say, ‘Ok, we want a free market, we want school choice.’”   

Most school choice programs have been challenged in court and most have prevailed, according to EdChoice, a leading school choice advocate. Education savings accounts, where the state puts money in an account parents direct to fund their child’s education, have been found constitutional, despite multiple challenges, and are often held up as the “gold standard” of school choice. 

Scudder did not specify on what grounds the party could challenge Texas’ program, but noted the state Constitution guarantees students the right “to a public education and to a well-funded public education.” Still, he admitted a lawsuit is “a bit of a Hail Mary right now.” 

Abbott, a Republican, promoted the school choice bill alongside record funding for public schools, claiming the state could have “both” school choice and well-funded public schools. 

Corey DeAngelis, a Texan and school choice evangelist, called it “peak projection from the Texas Democrats.  

“They all voted to trap poor kids in failing government schools,” he told The Lion in an email. “Republicans passed a bill to give all families educational opportunities. School choice is an equalizer.” 

DeAngelis said Democrats “care more about the teachers’ unions than the kids” and are “desperately fighting to protect the special interests that control them.” 

And since state Attorney General Ken Paxton has already issued an opinion that the program is constitutional, DeAngelis said, “Texas parents will be victorious despite Democrats’ pathetic attempts to control the minds of other people’s children.”