The D.C-based American Federation for Children is the leading national advocate for school vouchers, what it and other supporters call “school choice.”
Vouchers allow public dollars to pay for private schools. For now, Texas doesn’t have any type of state-run voucher program – but that could change in the next legislative session.
Now, just weeks away from the November election, the AFC is putting support behind specific Republicans who voted for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial voucher-like Education Savings Accounts — ESAs — in the last session. Mailers sent out recently praise the candidates as “champion[s] for children” who “fought for Texas teachers, parents and children” — while making no mention of vouchers, or party affiliation.
That’s intentional, said Southern Methodist University political scientist Matthew Wilson.
“It may very well be that these fliers are not really intended for people who vote in Republican primaries, let's say. And that's why they don't mention the party affiliation of the person,” Wilson said. “It may very well be that these fliers are intended to sway persuadable Democrats and independents, and that would speak to a certain strategy.”
One of the candidates featured in the mailers is House District 112 Rep. Angie Chen Button of Richardson. The AFC flyer says she “voted for higher pay for teachers, more money for schools, and higher quality schools.”
Button was one of the 63 Republicans who voted last fall against stripping ESAs from House Bill 1, a sprawling education bill that also included new money for schools, teachers and a higher per-student allotment. That allotment hasn’t changed since 2019.
Some, including Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, said tying school funding to ESAs essentially held it hostage and that a voucher program would pull money away from public schools. Abbott had already warned he would sign no education funding measure without ESAs, despite the state’s $33 billion surplus.
HB 1 failed after ESAs were removed.
Button said she was disappointed because she favors more state money for public schools and vouchers.
“We supported the public schools,” Button said. “But I truly, truly believe giving the parents choice, in order to get the best education for the student."
Button said she does not believe sending public dollars to private schools as vouchers hurts public schools.
“It is complementary to the public school system,” Button said.
Zeph Capo, current president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, disagrees. He criticized the AFC mailers for not mentioning the candidates’ voucher support.
“Is anyone surprised that they would flat out lie in writing?” he said. “I'm certainly not.”
Capo also criticized AFC founder Betsy DeVos of Michigan – who was education secretary in the Trump administration -- and mega-donor Jeff Yass from Pennsylvania, who also gave Abbott’s campaign $6 million last December and another $4 million in 2024.
“What the hell does somebody from Michigan or Pennsylvania have business telling us how to run our policies and run our school systems in the state of Texas?” he asked. “You know, go deal with their own states.”
KERA reached out to AFC numerous times for comment, without response.
Button’s Democratic challenger, Averie Bishop, also called the flyers disingenuous.
"It is terrible that constituents are going to receive these pieces of mail and not understand the importance and weight of this school voucher conflict that we're experiencing here in Texas," she said.
Bishop said her opponent's voting record hurts schools and education.
“In Richardson ISD, five elementary schools have already shut down due to underfunding," Bishop said. "Mesquite, Sunnyvale, all these school districts are in conversation of condensing their schools because they cannot afford to keep the doors open."
Other AFC mailers for pro-voucher Republicans in Texas have supported District 108 Rep. Morgan Meyer in North Texas, and District 52 Rep. Caroline Harris in Round Rock.
AFC’s flyers are third-party ads. That means the organization cannot legally communicate with Button’s campaign or any candidates it supports or attacks.
Button said she has not seen the mailers.
“Usually, when the mailers start going around, we’ll have a friend send us information,” she said. “Nobody’s sent me anything about this. So I really can’t comment on something I have not seen.”
Campaign finance reporter Jimmy Cloutier said the AFC’s strategy of hiding candidates’ views on vouchers is intentional.
“It is clear from its public positions and the candidates it supported in Texas during the primary that its goal here is to advance school vouchers or a voucher-like program in Texas,” he said.
“The flyers, he said, don’t “strike me as transparent. The unfortunate truth is, it's not uncommon.”
Cloutier said other organizations distribute similar ads -- but the AFC spends the most. He’s written about them for OpenSecrets, a non-profit that follows political donations and expenditures.
Cloutier said during the primaries, AFC ads were sent from Virginia going after anti-voucher Republicans, with some success. He said the group has spent at least $4.5 million in Texas so far this election cycle.
“It's a lot of money, even for Texas, which has very expensive elections,” he said. “Based off the data that that we've collected, AFC is by far the biggest spender - outside spender - in Texas this year.”
Matthew Wilson, the SMU political scientist, said that although the AFC avoids political party mentions and the candidates’ pro-voucher views, it isn’t being dishonest in its mailers.
“I think there is a strategic element to why they don't lead in their advertisements to certain voters with their core issue with the school voucher issue,” he said. "Now, I would be much more troubled by this if they were making claims that were false or if they were making slanderous attacks against someone. But these ads are pretty innocuous.
"All they're saying is positive, truthful things about the candidates that they're supporting.”
He said reaching more centrist voters “who perhaps are not as invested in the school choice school voucher debate” could help those Republican candidates this fall.
“Those persuadable voters are going to respond well to the fact that Button, Meyer and others have supported teacher pay raises, have supported education more generally,” he said. “And so I think it's very strategic that they're pitching their appeal in that way for that segment of persuadable voters."
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