The GOP is Cracking Up Over School Vouchers

A deep divide over a "litmus test" issue reveals cracks in the MAGA coalition

This weekend, my inbox filled up with reports of contentious townhalls. No, not THOSE contentious townhalls, in which angry voters confronted GOP officials over the DOGE-ing of America. The raucous events that caught my attention involved locals in Texas who are unhappy that their elected officials are supporting a massive, and deeply controversial, school voucher bill.

Here’s one such scene from Palestine, TX, where some residents are furious over their state rep’s flip flop on the issue. Meanwhile in Central Texas, locals expressed their unhappiness over the state’s meager support for public schools, which one audience member called “a slap in the face.” Attendees at the townhall, hosted by Representative Helen Kerwin and Brad Buckley, chair of the House Public Education Committee, peppered the duo with questions about the voucher plan and were left largely unsatisfied with the answers. You can watch a round up of the townhalls here.

To understand what precisely is going on in the Lone Star State we need a quick refresher on the state of the debate over a plan to spend $1 billion on so-called education savings accounts. In brief, this top priority of Governor Greg Abbott, who spent millions of his own and hedge fund billionaire Jeff Yass’ money to knock off anti-voucher Republicans last spring, is pretty much all anybody talks about in Texas these days. Over the past few weeks, a parade of national figures—President Trump, Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz—has weighed in, characterizing the plan as a done deal and urging Texans to get behind it.

But a funny thing keeps happening en route to the champagne celebration. Voters, grassroots party activists and high-profile GOP leaders keep rebelling. Take, for example, Greg Abbott’s trotting out of conservative influencer Riley Gaines. Now Gaines is beloved in the MAGA-sphere for her anti-trans activism, but the response of the grassroots to her voucher sales pitch was to tell Gaines, a former competitive swimmer, to stay in her lane.

Indeed, the more Abbott and the deep-pocketed voucher lobby characterize the bill as a done deal, the more they fan the flames of backlash. When I talked to west Texas newspaper editor Suzanne Bellsnyder last week, she told me that she’s never seen the level of grassroots conservative energy that opposition to vouchers has spawned. The coalition, which has rallied around the broad theme that “Vouchers Aren’t Conservative,” includes football-loving rural Republicans who fear for the future of their schools, small government folks who see vouchers as a big government takeover of private and homeschools, parent activists who smell a “globalist” agenda in what they characterize as a “vendor bill,” and MAGA true believers who see vouchers as a handout to the wealthy.

The list goes on, but you get the picture. And while the energy is coming from the grassroots, GOP leaders are joining the crusade. Remember Allen West, the GOP firebrand who once represented Florida, then moved to Texas in an effort to lead the party to the right? West is now the chair of the Dallas County GOP and, surprise!, an opponent of the Abbott voucher bill. “This does not sound like educational freedom to me . . . Does it to you?” wrote West this week.

More telling are the loud voices on the right who should be going full tilt on behalf of the voucher bill but have gone suddenly silent. Check out this recent episode of Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, an experience I don’t recommend without a cocktail nearby. The topic of the day was “Keeping Texas MAGA” and featured two of the Lone Star state’s loudest loudmouths. Here was Brian Harrison, fresh off of all but accusing a state official of being a DEI hire, auditioning for the role of chief RINO hunter. And yet he made no mention of the top topic in Texas.

Next up was Bo French, chair of the Tarrant County GOP, known for his love of slurring his political opponents as “gay” and “retarded.” But on vouchers, French is keeping mum because as he put it in a recent interview, “Not all Republicans agree on school choice.”

So what happens now? It remains highly possible, even probable, that Abbott and the voucher lobby will succeed in dragging this thing over the finish line. But what they seem utterly unable to do is convince the GOP base to buy what they’re selling. As this recent report on voter opposition to vouchers concluded, voucher proponents HAVE succeeded in overcoming legislative oppostion, but “No similar mechanism exists for overcoming opposition among the mass public.”

In other words, school vouchers have now become a wedge issue within the very party that’s happening. And at a time when Trump et al are declaring a mandate to roll back the twentieth century, including taking aim at public education, we need every wedge issue we can get.