Texas House Passes Raft of Dan Patrick Priorities Imposing Conservative Mandates on Public Ed

Instead of attending family barbecues or local parades Texas state representatives spent Memorial Day on the floor of the House scrambling its way through a long list of controversial priority bills like Senate Bill which would further empower parents and school boards to review school libraries books for indecent or profane content After about two hours of debate on that measure Representative Gene Wu the Democratic Caucus chair announced he felt like he was taking crazy pills I think the vast majority of Texans would watch us during this debate and go What is going on there Wu announced There s thousands of other problems in our world right now that need addressing The Texas House spent the long holiday weekend which came ahead of the final Tuesday deadline for passage of Senate bills taking up several bills on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick s priority agenda Countless of which including SB were part of the Texas GOP s larger crusade to impose cultural conservatism on all facets of society tuition Among the law passed by the Republican majority were a bill to ban diversity equity and inclusion DEI in K- schools to require every Texas population school classroom to display the Ten Commandments and to increase political control over the services and curriculum of population universities In addition to removing harmful library material SB would allow parents to access participant library records and prevent their children from checking out certain books and allow for districts to establish parental library advisory councils GOP state Representative Brad Buckley who carried SB in the House commented it would ensure that school library collections are appropriate for their campuses based upon developmental suitability for those grade levels and on society values The bill was approved in the House on a - vote Democratic legislators worried about the subjectivity of profane content and neighborhood values potentially leading to the removal of books at the whim of established library councils Books help our kids understand the world and sometimes they help them survive it commented Representative Christina Morales a Houston Democrat We are here debating books while schools lack basic guidance and numerous kids are being failed by the systems around them Earlier in the weekend the House convened over hours on Saturday to vote on a litany of bills including Senate Bill dubbed the Parental Bill of Rights The omnibus bill would prohibit all DEI duties including in hiring decisions and would prohibit instruction on LGBTQ topics Representative Jeff Leach who carried the bill in the House got amendments passed to include due process for employees terminated for engaging in DEI duties and clarified that schools could recruit from historically Black colleges to diversify its applicant pool The House also approved an amendment from state Representative Steve Toth that would prohibit teachers from helping students socially transition by using a name or pronouns incongruent with a students biological sex The bill passed - on Sunday The Senate refused to concur with the House s changes and have convened a conference committee to negotiate the differences The House also passed an amended version of Senate Bill on Sunday an omnibus bill focusing on the idea of shared governance between the governing board of regents at a higher mentoring institution and its faculty and administration Under the House s version of the bill authored by Representative Matt Shaheen an institution s governing board would review core curricula degree minors and certificates at least once every five years Senate Bill ensures degrees earned in Texas are of value and prepare students for success both in life and in the workforce Shaheen announced Governing boards comprised solely of political appointees would also approve or deny the hiring of provosts The bill also calls for the Higher Training Coordinating Board to create the office of the ombudsman a gubernatorial appointee that will act as an intermediary between the Legislature and the state s university systems Shaheen s version of that senate bill has selected key differences including the removal of a section that would require universities to evaluate all of its degree programs Opponents of the bill like Representative Donna Howard warned that the measure would create a chilling effect on professors and academic freedom writ large I believe in accountability I believe in efficiency I believe in preparing students for the workforce but I also believe in local governance and institutional autonomy Howard commented This bill undermines faculty voices and injects politics into the classroom at a time when we should be laser focused on expanding access improving attendee outcomes and restoring trust in our tuition systems The amended version ultimately passed the House largely along party lines The Senate also declined to accept the changes on this bill which now is in conference committee One of the majority of heavily contested debates of the House weekend marathon came over Senate Bill proposing to mandate by state law that each and every single one of the tens of thousands of population school classrooms kindergarten to th Grade in Texas display a poster of the Ten Commandments The bill had first come to the House floor on Wednesday only to be flushed back to committee due to a triumphant parliamentary tactic But like Jesus himself the bill rose from the dead and returned to the House floor three days later In her bill layout state Representative Candy Noble revealed the Ten Commandments are foundational to the American teaching system and that displaying commandments in classrooms will ensure kids know not to lie steal or kill Our classrooms are crying for moral guidance reported Noble during a committee hearing on the bill The proposed law specifies the very dimensions at least inches wide and inches tall and font size legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom required of the state-mandated biblical posters The bill does not go so far as to specify a font color Noble affirmed it could in theory be rainbow like the one in Noah s ark Schools must accept private donations of legally compliant posters and otherwise may but is not required to use its budget to buy those posters During the bill debate which took place on Saturday the Jewish Sabbath state Representative James Talarico an Austin Democrat petitioned Noble to read the fourth commandment Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Talorico also brought up concerns about students who aren t Christian having to see the Ten Commandments every day Rather than feeling alienated Noble announced the students would likely be curious It would be to their enlightenment to see what made our forefathers tick Noble revealed The House tabled several amendments that proposed including other core texts or principles from other religions Noble declared she looked forward to curious children asking the sort of questions that will surely come from seeing a poster of the Ten Commandments in their classroom such as What is adultery or What is a manservant and for teachers to bear the responsibility of answering such queries Legislators also brought up the concept of separation of church and state which Noble repeatedly contested was not meant to keep the church out of the state but the ruling body out of the church governing body was made by God for men she declared Talarico mentioned he worried the bill would push people away from Christianity There is a spiritual situation in our world that must be addressed but this bill is not the way to address it Talarico noted This is a power play by using our power as legislators to elevate our faith tradition over all the rest instead of leading by example we re leading by mandate The House approved SB on final passage the next day Sunday the Lord s day of rest and worship in Christianity Governor Greg Abbott has stated he intends to sign the bill into law This will almost surely invite a swift legal challenge a federal judge ruled that a similar Louisiana law was unconstitutional last November Indeed Texas Republicans very intent with this bill is likely to get the U S Supreme Court to take a new stance on the doctrine of church and state separation On that front the House was kind enough to add an amendment stipulating that the State of Texas must defend and cover any legal expenses incurred by local school districts sued over this law The post Texas House Passes Raft of Dan Patrick Priorities Imposing Conservative Mandates on General Ed appeared first on The Texas Observer