School choice could finally become a reality in Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, celebrating that — once again — school choice passed out of the state Senate.
“For the sixth time, Mike, the sixth time I passed school choice out of the Senate. I’ve been Lieutenant Governor ten years, a senator before that, and chair of education and this bill — and the reason I say the sixth time is because we’ve never gotten a vote in the Texas House — even though it’s been a Republican majority — on school choice until last session, and they voted it down,” he explained, noting that he, Gov. Greg Abbott, and President Donald Trump endorsed against the Republicans who voted against the bill. As a result, they “took out almost all of them who voted against school choice.”
“And we’re very hopeful the Texas House will pass it this year, and the new speaker — we helped push out the old speaker — the new speaker says he will pass it this year. So we’re very hopeful,” he said, explaining that this is the “biggest launch in world history on school choice.”
“We do things big in Texas. It’s a one billion a year program to launch and 100,000 students that we focus on, children with disabilities, focus on students in failing schools. And it’s also universal for everyone in the different groups of money. So whether a person is home schooled, whether they are currently in a private school or they’re in a public school, they can take advantage of it as well,” he explained, noting that it would work as a lottery system.
“Students would apply, or parents would apply. And we have so many dollars in the program, again, for children with disabilities, children in failing schools, F and D schools, and it’s wide open, universal to the other bucket. And so they’ll, just like they do for charter schools — we have about a half a million students in charter schools in Texas — it’s the same, it’s the same process, a lottery,” he said.
Further, Patrick revealed that nationally about three percent of parents take advantage of school choice when it is available, debunking opposition talking points that school choice would undermine the entire system.
“We have five and a half million kids in school and 9,000 campuses,” he said, laying out the landscape in his state. “Not every school is good. It’s just, you know, it’s like in life, not every politician is good. You got the great ones. Most of them are in the middle. You’ve got some pretty bad ones — in both parties. So it’s the same way with schools.”
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Patrick also mentioned Elon Musk, heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who touted this move.
“And he said something very simple. I’m paraphrasing here. He said, ‘If a student only has one choice of a school, and that school is bad, they really have no choice or chance at all.’ And that’s really the key. I know … the old saying is no one should be locked into their zip code … and I think Elon said it the best,” Patrick said.
“Every child deserves a chance to have the American dream, and you can’t have it without a great education,” he added.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
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