Patrick appointment signals looming voucher fight at Capitol

With the appointment of state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, as chairman of the Senate Education committee, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst signaled that he got the message from the Tea Party wing of his party about the priority of school choice.

Patrick, a Tea Party champion who will replace retiring state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, has been saying for months that he would push a voucher program this legislative session. Parents would be able to use vouchers to pay for sending their children to schools of their choice rather than public schools.

Gov. Rick Perry's recent appointment of former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, also an advocate of school choice, was another sign that the issue will be a high priority for the Republican majority in the legislature.

"To me, school choice is the photo ID bill of this session," Patrick said in August. "Our base has wanted us to pass photo voter ID for years, and we did it. They've been wanting us to pass school choice for years. This is the year to do it, in my view. That issue will do more to impact the future of Texas and the quality of education than anything else we could do."

Dewhurst, in a statement, said, "Education will be the hallmark issue of 2013 legislative session, and I believe Sen. Dan Patrick is uniquely qualified to tackle this urgent issue. Texas must change course. Texans must have choices in the education of their children. It is time for bold changes, and I intend to work with Sen. Patrick to shake up the status quo in education and ensure the promise of a world-class education for Texas."

Patrick has served on the Senate Education Committee since 2007 and has been vice chair for the past four years.

"My focus will be on accountability with flexibility, education through innovation, more local control tied to local responsibility and the opportunity for families to choose the school that best fits the needs of their child," Patrick said in a statement.

Vouchers long have been controversial in Texas and elsewhere. Education associations in the state view them as an effort to dismantle the public school system by diverting state money into privately operated enterprises.

"We're convinced from our own studies that vouchers are not the right choice for Texas," said F. Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin-based research organization with a progressive perspective.

"Vouchers bleed off money that's needed to have strong public schools," McCown said. "They don't provide real choice for low-income students because of problems like transportation and parental engagement, and they don't work at all in small-town Texas, where there's only going to be one school, and it's the public school. We believe vouchers are a stalking-horse for middle- and upper-income parents fleeing public schools and leaving them a wreck."

Dewhurst also will replace Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, as Senate Higher Education Committee chair, according to his office. Dewhurst is poised to name Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, as head of that committee. Seliger headed the Senate's controversial redistricting effort last session.

Zaffirini was something of a thorn in the side of Gov. Rick Perry last session in his push for reforms at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. Perry sought to realign university administration and academic offerings along free-market principles.

In his race for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination – which he lost to conservative insurgent Cruz – Dewhurst was the target of criticism from the right over the Senate Higher Education Committee bottling up a bill to do away with in-state tuition for qualified children of illegal immigrants. Zaffirini has said the bill didn't have support from a majority of committee members.

Under Dewhurst's plan for committee changes, Zaffirini will become chair of the Senate Government Organization Committee. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who has headed Government Organization, will become Open Government chair.

"If there was any doubt that Lt. Gov. Dewhurst intends to seek reelection in 2014, it was put to rest by his committee appointments," said Robert Miller, a Houston attorney and political analyst. "According to his press release, realigning the committee appointments will allow 'more time to focus on conservative solutions to issues.'"

Miller noted that Patrick regularly states that the 83rd Texas Senate, with at least five new members, will be the most conservative in history. Dewhurst, he noted, "has realigned the committees to match that conservative shift."

pfikac@express-news.net

joe.holley@chron.com