Moving swiftly on a central Republican priority, the Texas Senate approved a “school choice” bill Wednesday that would put taxpayer dollars toward private school education. The 19-12 vote was largely along partisan lines with state Sen.

"The Texas Senate's passage of SB 2 is the biggest launch of any universal school choice program in American history, with $1 billion in funding for 100,000 students," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement Wednesday night.

After seven hours of debate over SB 2 on the Senate floor Wednesday, the chamber suspended rules so that they could expedite the process and send it to the Texas House for consideration.