Vikki Goodwin Lays Out Her Senate: Put the $1 Billion ESA Program Back Into Public Schools, Expand Medicaid — and Talk to Every Senator

Vikki Goodwin will preside over a Senate her party does not control, and on Monday she described, in her own words, how she intends to do it. In an interview with CBS News Texas carried by T-SPAN and read in full by this desk, the Democratic lieutenant governor-elect said the election that swept her into statewide office leaves her hopeful for significant change, starting at the neighborhood schoolhouse. She pointed to schools closing and struggling to keep quality teachers and small classes, and she named her central education move plainly: take the $1 billion now going into the state's Education Savings Account program — the school-choice program that took effect this fall, funded with taxpayer money for private-school tuition — and bring it back into the public schools. Last year's Republican majority added $8.5 billion for school districts; Goodwin and her fellow Democrats said at the time that it was not enough.

Healthcare sits next on her list. Goodwin restated a campaign pledge to expand Medicaid in Texas, which Republican majorities have blocked for years, arguing that expansion would bring federal dollars back to the state to help Texans. Those two priorities — schools and Medicaid — were also the spine of filing day itself: more than 1,200 bills were filed in the Legislature on Monday, including education funding, repeal of the ESA program, a $15-an-hour state minimum wage, repeal of sales-tax incentives for data center projects and repeal of the laws requiring Texas sheriff's departments to hold agreements with ICE, according to the same file. On Tuesday, Goodwin will hold a news conference at the Capitol to introduce her bipartisan transition leadership team — the first test of whether the word bipartisan describes her Senate or merely her hopes for it.

The other side of the building is already arranging itself. Republicans keep their Senate majority, and the man Goodwin replaces, outgoing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, told radio host Mark Davis on Monday that Senate Republicans should change the chamber's rules to protect their conservative majority; Patrick also announced he will lead a new consulting company, Patrick Strategies, after leaving office. Against that, Republican State Sen. Bob Hall — whose district includes parts of Dallas County — said he had no intention of blocking bills just to be partisan, and named his own priorities, including shutting down the Texas Lottery. Goodwin's stated method sits between those two signals: she said she wants conversations with each and every senator to understand what their district needs, and that she believes consensus is available because Texans of both parties said they were ready for a change in direction. Dallas and Tarrant counties, two of the largest Senate delegations in the state, will learn soon enough which of Monday's three postures — rules, resistance or conversation — actually runs the chamber when the 90th Legislature convenes on January 12.