Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows said Thursday that creating a private-school voucher program in Texas is “the defining issue” of the legislative session, reassuring a crowd of conservative supporters gathered in Austin that their long wait for school choice was over.

Gov. Greg Abbott has already held dozens of rallies around the state trying to build momentum for a school voucher program, which would allow parents to use tax dollars to partially pay for private school tuition.

The Texas House on Thursday filed a sweep of education bills including public school finance and school voucher proposals.