“Gold-standard” randomized control trials consistently show that school choice improves academic achievement among the students who enroll in these programs. Choice even improves education outcomes in the government-run schools, as the latter rush to improve to meet the competition. Everybody wins.

Everyone, that is, except the teachers’ unions, and they have a lot of money to spend on elections. These unions are behind the powerful opposition to this much-needed reform in Texas.

The Texas Senate passed the bill last fall, and the legislation was then blocked in the House by rural Republicans and anti-choice Democrats (which was all of them). Twenty-one Republicans voted with the Democrats against the plan, throwing away a victory for the state’s children and families that the GOP could have achieved easily.