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In addition, in last week's general election, Democrats lost two state House seats, District 80 and District 34, to GOP school-choice proponents.

Add it all up, and Abbott now appears to have the votes to get ESAs or a similar program through the state House. \"Counting what I call only true hardcore school choice proponents, there are 79 votes in favor in the Texas House. It takes 76 votes to get it passed,\" he said at a public appearance at a Christian private school the day after the election.

That means that Texas could pass school choice legislation as early as January or February 2025. Texas's legislative session begins Jan. 14, and while normally new bills can't pass within the first 60 days of the session, Abbott could name school choice an \"emergency item\" to allow it to pass sooner.

Footnotes

*This isn't too surprising; rural Republicans all across the country have spoken out against using public funds to pay for private schools because public schools are central to their communities for jobs and education.

**While Abbott did not publicly support one of these candidates in the primaries, he did eventually endorse her before the general election against her Democratic competitor.

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