Public school supporters made their voices heard but Republicans in the Texas House won in the end, approving Senate Bill 2, Gov. Greg Abbott’s school voucher bill, on an 86-63 vote at 2am this morning.

No Democrats supported the proposal. Only two Republicans – Reps. Dade Phelan and Gary VanDeaver – opposed it. The Texas Senate has already approved SB 2, so it is now certain to become law.

It was a career-saving win for Abbott, whose obsession with vouchers has become a defining feature of his governorship. He released a statement calling the vote an extraordinary victory, promising to quickly sign the bill into law, and saying it will create the largest voucher program in the nation.

House Democrats released their own statement, describing SB 2 as “devastatingly unpopular” and stressing the financial impact they expect it to have. “Texas families will be forced to watch as Republicans systematically defund their schools to benefit the privileged few,” the statement read. “This voucher scam will strip millions from underfunded and closing classrooms across the state, leaving districts with impossible choices: slash essential programs, fire dedicated teachers, or burden homeowners with even higher property taxes.”

SB 2 will allow Texas families to receive at least $10,000 of taxpayer money per year, per child, to spend on tuition at an accredited private school. The money would be paid into bank accounts managed by for-profit companies. The bill allocates $1 billion in taxes for the program in its first two years but includes provisions for rapid expansion. The state projects that vouchers will cost $4.4 billion per year by 2030.

Public school supporters still had hope of defeating vouchers as Wednesday morning began. The previous day, Texas political reporter Scott Braddock had written on social media that Democratic and Republican voucher opponents had a plan to attach an amendment to SB 2, tying approval of it to a statewide voter referendum to be held in November. According to the Quorum Report, the plan had the support of all 62 Democrats and as many as 23 Republicans, enough for it to easily pass.

With this hope hovering in the background, hundreds of public school supporters wearing red filled the Capitol. Daphne Hoffacker of the Austin Council of PTAs paced the center of the rotunda, leading the group in chants – “No vouchers, fund our schools” – for close to an hour. Afterward, a dozen Democrats held a press conference. The leader of the caucus, Rep.Gene Wu of Houston, said representatives were taking calls on SB 2 with the vast majority of callers in opposition. Wu framed the proposal in apocalyptic terms, saying it could destroy public education. “If the public school system shuts down, that is the end of the middle class,” he said. “That is the end of America.”

As Wu spoke, Republicans were gathered for a pre-vote meeting ordered by Abbott, who put Donald Trump on speakerphone. Trump rambled in his disordered fashion, declaring that vouchers had become an important issue for Republicans and praising by name the authors of the Senate and House versions of SB 2, Sen. Brandon Creighton and Rep. Brad Buckley. He promised to stand behind any rank-and-file Republicans who felt that a pro-voucher vote would risk their re-election, saying, “You’re not going to get hurt by it.”

Discussion on the bill began several hours later. As in previous debates, Republicans led with the claim that they support vouchers in order to help economically disadvantaged kids and those with special needs. Rep. Hillary Hickland got Buckley to agree that states with vouchers have more “diversity,” despite the anti-DEI sentiment of the Texas GOP. Democrats responded that voucher money will go overwhelmingly to wealthy families and that private schools will be able to reject disabled and poor children if they want.

Voucher opponents had expected a Republican representative to sponsor the voter referendum amendment to SB 2. So it was a bad sign when Democratic Rep. James Talarico stepped up to present it. Talarico argued that vouchers have always been controversial in Texas and that politicians will continue to struggle over the issue unless the state’s residents definitively resolve it at the ballot box. “It’s the only way to put this issue to bed,” he said. “Otherwise, this fight will never end.”

Republicans voted to table the referendum amendment with an 86-82 vote. The only Republican to side with Democrats was Dade Phelan. It was now obvious that the six to eight Republicans who had been identified as possible swing votes by groups like Pastors for Texas Children had decided to support the bill. Vouchers were a done deal.

Republicans like Reps. Drew Darby, Stan Lambert, and Charlie Geren, who led the fight against vouchers in the 2023 legislative session, voted for the measure this time around. Braddock blamed the vote changes on a pressure campaign by Abbott ahead of the vote, drawing attention to social media posts by Rep. Jeff Barry and Darby’s wife, Clarisa, who wrote, “This bill was going to pass with or without Drew and the other four holdouts.”

Democrats filed dozens of additional amendments after the referendum defeat, signalling that it was going to be a long night. House Republicans voted down every one of them – including an amendment that would have ensured the voucher program’s growth could not outpace growth in public school funding. By 7pm, voucher opponents began drifting out of the gallery. Daphne Hoffacker and her crew packed it in around 8pm. House Democrats sent out a social media message at 11pm asking people to return, but few did.

“Now it’s just me, two friends, the lobbyists, the vendors that stand to profit, and the useful idiots who care more about pats on the head than you, me, or our children,” Hollie Plemons, a Republican voucher opponent, wrote on X.