In her first press conference as governor-elect, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa told reporters Thursday that she and her team are “actively interviewing people” to replace Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath.
Firing Morath, an appointee of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott who has served in the role since 2016, was one of Hinojosa’s campaign promises and one she appears ready to prioritize.
Indeed, reversing Abbott’s school voucher program was front and center in Hinojosa’s gubernatorial campaign. Since Abbott rammed the scheme through the Texas Legislature last year, watchdogs estimate that the $1 billion program has cost Texas public schools about $300 million in funding as kids leave public school districts and enroll in private schools.
What’s more, parents of disabled students who qualified for the program have complained that it’s harder than they expected to use those vouchers to enroll at private schools, since those institutions aren’t required to enroll all applicants, even if their families can afford the tuition.
Nearly a quarter of private schools accepting vouchers used students’ religious preferences in admissions, watchdog group Our Schools Our Democracy found.
“The data tells two stories at the same time: most students using a voucher this year were already in private or home school, while thousands of families who explored a voucher ultimately chose not to use it,” Dee Carney, director of the Texas Center for Voucher Transparency, said during a recent press call. “It’s precisely what the research from other states show and what we’ve been stressing — eligibility does not mean access.”
Although Hinojosa has pledged to overturn the controversial voucher program, the governor can’t unilaterally throw out a law passed by the Legislature. While Democrats will control the Texas House and every statewide elected office come January, Republicans still dominate the Texas Senate.
Even so, state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, a voucher skeptic who backed Hinojosa, told the Current that more Republicans are skeptical of the program than the public might think.
“I’m not sure the Senate is hellbent on keeping it as is,” Bernal said. “I think they’ve all seen that it’s not working the way they thought it would. So, we could get rid of vouchers, for example, that give people tuition to private schools. But, there is a version of vouchers, for example, that might pay for pre-kindergarten for families that don’t qualify right now. It would be hard for the Senate to [say] they don’t want to help the lower middle class and working class, but we want to help the wealthiest Texans — especially after what happened earlier this week.”
Another factor that may help Hinojosa gain favor among Republican lawmakers is her emphasis on bipartisanship during the gubernatorial transition process.
On Thursday, she announced that Ernest Bailes, a self-described conservative Republican whom Abbott helped oust from the Texas House during the 2024 GOP primary over his opposition to vouchers, would play a significant role on her gubernatorial transition team.
“We will put partisanship aside,” Bailes said during Thursday’s presser. “We will work together for what is best for the kids of the State of Texas. We will take care of education, and we will support and listen to the people.”
Bernal expects state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the lieutenant governor-elect, to put public school reform on the agenda for the legislative session slated to begin in January. That’s likely to include not just vouchers but also teacher pay, school accountability and revisions to the STAAR test.
Even so, University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor told the Current that Hinojosa may want to refrain from blowing all her political capital on the lightning-rod issue of school vouchers right off the bat.
“Republicans are going to block things here and there,” Taylor said. “But I think they also recognize that they had their asses handed to them on Tuesday, and they’re going to have to be, at least, willing to work with the governor when it’s in their interest or what they believe is in the best interest of the state.”
Taylor suggested that potential early wins for Hinojosa include THC legalization — a generally popular policy proposal championed by Goodwin — and data center regulation. Specifically, Taylor pointed to data centers’ water consumption and its implications for water scarcity in the semiarid Lone Star State.
Data centers’ water consumption was also among former Republican Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s top concerns before he too fell victim to Abbott’s wrath during the 2024 primaries.
Regardless of Hinojosa’s legislative priorities, Bernal maintains Democratic lawmakers are largely united on the issues that need to be tackled.
“For most of us, the priorities aren’t different,” Bernal said. “I think what Governor-elect Hinojosa found is that her priorities are the same as most Texans. It’s not as if we’re all sitting down trying to think of what to do. Hopefully, we’ll get the chance to do the things that the majority of Texans have been wanting us to do for quite some time.”
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