(The Center Square) – The fourth special legislative session of the year has ended without the Texas legislature passing school choice or education funding bills.
Gov. Greg Abbott called four special sessions this year to pass signature bills that didn’t make it out of the regular session. The first two prioritized property tax relief. The third and fourth prioritized border security bills and school choice and education funding bills.
The legislature passed property tax relief and some border security bills, but failed to pass school choice and education funding bills.
With just days left in the special session, the Texas Senate on Friday unanimously passed a school safety bill, which went nowhere in the House. At the same time, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan escalated their conflict, blaming the other for why bills didn’t pass in the legislature.
On Tuesday, the House adjourned.
Before it did so, state Rep. Steve Allison, R-San Antonio, asked if the House could suspend its rules to expedite passing two bills related to education and elections.
Phelan replied by saying he wouldn’t recognize Allison’s motion. The House had only received one of the bills from the Senate that day, and Phelan had already said last week that there was not enough time left for the House to consider the bills in question.
The House then adjourned and dispersed. Phelan issued a lengthy statement, highlighting over 30 legislative successes of the year.
“The Texas House concludes the session today having passed strong border security measures including an additional $1.5 billion for the wall,” he said, citing the most recent border security bills that passed in the fourth special session (SB 3 allocating border wall funding and SB4 making illegal entry a criminal offense).
“These measures build upon other strong border security initiatives passed by the Texas Legislature earlier this year,” Phelan said. They include designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, prosecuting fentanyl deaths as murder, enabling Border Patrol agents to arrest criminals for state offenses, deterring crime along the border by increasing mandatory minimum sentences for human smuggling and operating a stash house.
This is in addition to the legislature allocating roughly $10 billion over the last two budget cycles to fund Texas’ border security efforts.
Phelan also published a lengthy bulleted list, highlighting the accomplishments of the 88th Legislature.
“Over the course of 2023, the Texas House has worked tirelessly to continue laying the groundwork for safer more promising future for all Texans. Whether historic property tax relief for home and business owners, expanding access to quality healthcare and behavioral healthcare services, investing in infrastructure expansion and improvement projects, boosting workforce development, and cost of living adjustments for retired teachers, Texas House members came together to address the most important issues facing our respective districts and our state as a whole. As Texas continues to grow and lead the nation in economic opportunity, I am confident that many wide ranging achievements of the 88th legislature will continue to keep our state the most promising in the nation.”
The Senate then convened and adjourned, with Patrick saying he may hold a press conference after the end of the special session.
Gov. Greg Abbott has hinted at calling another special session perhaps in the new year and has vowed to continue to push forward a school choice bill. Without the support of 21 Republicans who have opposed school choice, however, it remains unclear if the legislature will pass a school choice measure any time soon.
