Tried his best to kill School Choice and succeeded - for now. Nearly 20 states have passed it with great success and no scare stories as he and Kacal put out there. Good riddance.

Thank god he killed Abbott's misguided attempted use of public tax dollars. You want public dollars to go to church schools? Tax churches.

Public tax dollars for public schools, only!

Pretty sure tax dollars are MY dollars that are paid into a system that then spends them however they want, including lots of waste and even slush funds in some districts.

Call me crazy, but I think I should be able to spend my tax dollars to send my kids to the schools of my choosing. And there are lots of options other than "church schools" as you seem to be worried about. If I want to send my kids to a church school with the tax dollars I pay in, seems reasonable enough.

Send them to wherever you want. Church school, non-profit, for-profit, or cooperative. Homeschool them. Teach them using an online program.. There are a lot of options. Just don't expect public tax dollars to pay for it. We have a public education system that the public pays for. Choose otherwise, you pay for that choice.

As a former private school parent, I'm anti voucher because taking the state's money eventually means you have to follow every damn one of their rules. Not dealing with some of that is why I sent my oldest to private school.

Bob Yancy said:

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As you indicate, I am not a declared candidate for state rep and have yet to decide. My thoughts on your 3 questions are as a citizen of Brazos County, not a candidate for anything.

1) High Speed Rail - I wish one of the transparency bills had passed. I am not in favor of massive lengths of eminent domain stretching from Houston to Dallas. I'm curious why using existing railway right of way hasn't been explored. They could potentially use elevated tracks over the existing ground tracks, which would virtually eliminate eminent domain. Property owners with current easements for ground tracks could be paid for another easement just for the support columns' base, if needed. Railway already exists in an almost straight shot from Houston to Dallas already. High Speed Rail could be a massive economic benefit, but not at the expense of a regulatory taking and trampling on private property rights.

2) New Bryan Development - I'm an elected councilman for the citizens of College Station, and respectfully decline to weigh in on what my friends and colleagues to the north wish to pursue for their city.

3) Out of Control Border - Its a humanitarian and criminal and economic tragedy of unbelievable proportions. There's been more loss of life, largely unreported, under this administration that is unprecedented. The same people who cried out in anguish over the wrong-headed child separation policy bite their tongue as men, women and children die and are abused in historic numbers on both sides of the border. It's a crying shame and it needs to be stopped and order restored to legal immigration.

My $.02, respectfully.

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My solution to #! is that the RR could have run partially elevated rail lines all the way down I45 on the easement side and would have never had to strong-arm landowners in selling property rights.

Longtime TX Rep. Kyle Kacal will not seek reelection to statehouse https://www.kbtx.com/2023/11/27/longtime-tx-rep-kyle-kacal-will-not-seek-reelection-statehouse/

Kacal voted against vouchers. Wonder if Abbott, Lt Dan, et. al., told him he would be primaried?

EBrazosAg said:

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I don't know if he qualifies for pension or not. But that's not likely a driver in any direction. The value of the pension is all relative…..

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I don't know. ~$40,000 a year for life by staying another session. I believe this is all about being primaried.

They only add like $2400 a year or so with each year after they're vested. It's like a second social security check unless they are there forever. Not much.

I think the value proposition of feeling fulfilled at serving your state part time is diluted when it becomes a full time job.

Now that the governor has called multiple special sessions to achieve policy goals, it'll likely be commonplace. It's not a part time job anymore, by a long shot.

Add to that the partisan rancor and the value prop of serving goes down. Just calling it as I see it.

I surmise that's why folks are stepping down in droves.

Not trying to cast stones but never really understood how Kacal kept getting re-elected. Heard him debate a couple and times and wasn't impressed. Even his public speeches were….awkward.