Republicans’ big idea for remaking public education hits voter resistance

“It came in over budget because so many families decided to avail themselves of this,” Tim Moore, North Carolina’s House speaker and a representative-elect, said of the state’s growing initiative. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images The American Federation for Children, a school choice organization founded by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that spends heavily in state legislative races, said it spent more than $8 million in the Texas primary and general elections to cement a voucher-friendly state House majority to support what could eventually become the nation’s largest statewide school choice program. “I made sure that we would elect Republicans to the Texas House of Representatives in sufficient numbers to be able to pass a school choice plan just like the Texas Senate has passed many times,” Abbott declared during a post-election news conference at a Christian private school where he boasted a “tidal wave of support” for his endorsed House candidates. “The teacher unions are a very effective political machine and it’s not hard when you’re voting over these things in direct democracy to demagogue the issue.” But Petrilli, a school choice proponent who opposes subsidizing wealthy households through broad voucher programs, said lawmakers could be overestimating their political support when such initiatives don’t have much to offer suburban or rural-dwelling households that might be happy with their local schools or have no other option.