School voucher proposal dies in Texas House

MySA.com: State Government: "In a stunning rejection of the Republican leadership's wishes, the House late Monday defeated a proposal that would have established a pilot school voucher program.

More than a dozen rural and suburban Republicans joined nearly all 64 House Democrats to kill the contentious measure.

After hours of heated floor debate, the end came after one of Speaker Tom Craddick's principal lieutenants, Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, was unable to fight off amendments that would have gutted the proposal.

The effort to push through the measure began to unravel after Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels, gave an impassioned speech against the proposal.

'We are not funding textbooks for schools. How on earth can we fund a program like this?' she charged in an emotional discussion that several times turned into a screaming match with fellow Republicans who favored the bill.

'This might send me home,' she said, referring to possible opposition from within her party next election cycle, 'but our job here is to throw a lifeline to schoolchildren, not some of them, but all of the schoolchildren of Texas, and we have failed to do that.'"