Paradigm Shift

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If you get the feeling something smells when it comes to Texas schools, you're right. Right now, they're in a third special session this year, with Abbott's and Dan Patrick's intent to pass a school voucher program that would give $8000 per student per year of your tax money -- the thousand you pay every year to fund PUBLIC schools where most of our children get their educations -- to parents who can use it to send their kids to private schools.

The takeover of Houston ISD stunk to high Heaven when it was announced -- why take over a whole school district, the largest one in Texas, when only one school out of 270 is underperforming? Now we are beginning to see why. It's part of Republican state officials' drive to move children into private schools paid for by taxpayer dollars -- private schools where they can set their own (Right-Wing) curriculum, ensuring children learn what Republicans want them to learn rather than the truth. Diversity? Nope. Inclusiveness? Nope. The truth about our nation's race history? Nope. Let's just raise a bunch of nice little pre-programmed Republicans who will keep White Republicans, mostly men, in control.

But this article is about charter schools, you say, not private schools? What is a charter school? :Charter schools are independently managed, open admission, public schools funded by the state. First approved by the Texas legislature in 1995, charter schools are run by private operators and boards, much like private schools, and can offer a more specialized range of curriculum.

Get that:
--funded by the state (our tax dollars)
--run by private operators (Republican donors)
--specialized range of curriculum (see paragraph 2 above)

We HAVE to stop this Republican takeover of our public education system and our children's minds!

Republicans are the majority, but there are still some Republicans in the Texas Legislature (mostly the House) who have joined all Democrats in stopping vouchers in the past. We also have the advantage of House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is Republican but a sane Republican and has the guts to stand up to Dan Patrick and Greg Abbott. Phelan lets the House members vote their conscience. After all, they represent We the People. Drop Speaker Phelan a note, while you're at it, and tell him how much you appreciate that.

Texas schools chief took over Houston district, but has let underperforming charter networks expand Commissioner of Education Mike Morath has repeatedly waived expansion requirements for charter school networks, allowing them to serve thousands more students, even when they don’t meet academic performance standards.

TEXAS TAXPAYERS TAKE NOTE: Our public schools are in great danger from the special session that began yesterday. Gregg Abbott and Dan Patrick want to use the school tax dollars you and I pay to give $8,000 per student per year to parents who want to send their kids to private schools. WE PAY OUR SCHOOL TAXES TO SUPPORT AND IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, NOT SUBSIDIZE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITIONS! If parents want to send their kids to private schools, let them pay the tuition themselves.

As usual, Republicans backing vouchers are up to their old smokescreen tactics, telling half-truths to make us believe school vouchers will not hurt public schools:

"Creighton says that the program will not siphon money away from public schools as the funding comes from general revenue,"

May be true, but it will definitely siphon money away from public schools long term by reducing the number of children in public schools. The state's contribution to school districts is based on the number of students.

DON'T FALL FOR IT. Democrats in the House and Senate have been holding the line against Abbott's and Patrick's voucher programs for years. Tell them you appreciate them and want them to continue to do just that.

CALL YOUR STATE SENATOR AND STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM YOU DON'T WANT SCHOOL VOUCHERS!

Please repost this on your FB page, email it to friends, talk it up -- pass it in any way possible. WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN.

Texas Senate unveils its priority school voucher bill The proposal would give families who exit the state’s public education system access to $8,000 of taxpayer money each year to pay for their children’s private schooling.

Opinion | Bathroom Reading at Mar-a-Lago Let’s Make America Great Again — by getting Trump out of politics.

TRUMP INDICTED
Trump Is Charged in Classified Documents Inquiry
HALLELUJAH.
PUT HIM UNDER THE EFFING JAIL.

FROM THE TEXAS TRIBUNE, ANOTHER FAR-RIGHT HYPOCRITE. PASS IT ON. THIS GUY IS STRIDENTLY ANTI-LGBTQ, BUT ITS OKAY IN HIS ETHICS BOOK TO CHEAT ON HIS WIFE WITH AN INTERN. THIS GUY SHOULD E UNSEATED, NOT SOMEONE FIGHTING FOR GUN CONTROL.

A complaint alleges that state Rep. Bryan Slaton, R-Royse City, had an “inappropriate relationship” with an intern. Slaton, who has run on conservative family values, allegedly invited the intern to his Austin condo after 10 p.m. March 31. He drank alcohol with the intern, who was under 21, according to a separate staffer.

The complaint, obtained by The Texas Tribune, was reported by a legislative staffer to the House General Investigating Committee.

The Texas Capitol has been abuzz about Slaton’s whereabouts since he missed Thursday’s House budget debate, one of the most important days of the legislative session. Slaton, one of the farthest-right members of the House, had proposed 27 amendments to the budget, and was the only lawmaker counted absent.

Slaton declined to answer questions in the Capitol on Monday, referring to a statement put out by criminal defense attorney Patrick Short that provided few details. A representative for the intern said the House General Investigating Committee advised her not to comment.

Slaton has been married to his wife since 2017. The two filed for divorce in spring 2022 but agreed to cease the divorce in November. He is especially known for his stridently anti-LGBTQ views. Read more from the Tribune’s Zach Despart, James Barragán and Patrick Svitek.

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Fentanyl testing strips: To combat a rising number of fentanyl overdose deaths in the state, the Texas House on Monday gave initial approval to a bill that would decriminalize fentanyl testing strips. The test strips warn people if a drug they’re about to take has traces of the deadly synthetic opioid.

The bill would take the testing strips off the state’s “drug paraphernalia” list, so it would no longer be a crime to carry them.

Fentanyl is very cheap to make, 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than he**in. Synthetic drugs — mostly fentanyl — accounted for 71,000 overdose deaths in 2021 nationwide. In Texas, overdose deaths involving fentanyl more than quadrupled in two years, rising from 333 people dying in fiscal year 2019 to 1,662 deaths in fiscal year 2021.

Drug policy experts say the bill, while making progress, doesn’t go far enough because other, sometimes stronger, drugs are beginning to enter the illegal drug market. They say the Legislature should expand the bill to cover equipment that tests for other drugs, too.

The topic is a rare point of bipartisan agreement at the Legislature, where several similar bills are filed in both the House and the Senate. Read more from the Tribune’s James Barragán.

BEST OF THE TRIB
Prison rights advocates have long fought to cool prisons in Texas, where the relentless heat has baked prisoners to death. The Texas House last week committed to spend $545 million to install air conditioning in 46 of the state’s dangerously hot prisons. But the more conservative Senate has not set aside any money to install prison air conditioning from the state’s staggering $32.7 billion in extra funds.

Lawmakers are proposing a new multibillion-dollar funding stream to help Texas universities better compete on the national stage as research powerhouses. But they’re simultaneously advancing bills that would threaten faculty tenure and defund diversity programs — efforts educators and students say would sabotage Texas’ lofty research goals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the bracted twistflower, a Texas wildflower threatened by growing urban sprawl, to be a threatened species. The declaration comes a month after putting another Texas plant on the endangered list.

Less than two weeks after a federal judge ordered Llano County officials to return to the public library system books they’d removed and allow them to be checked out again, officials this week will consider shutting down the library.

Watch: Wondering how to share your personal experiences and opinions on proposed laws directly with the Texas Legislature? We’ve got you covered. Here’s how to sign up to speak at a bill hearing, navigate the Capitol building and figure out what to say.

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BEST OF THE REST
Paywall content noted with $.
Bitcoin: A bitcoin mine in Rockdale — the most power-intensive of its kind in the U.S. — uses roughly the same amount of electricity as 300,000 homes that surround it. Here’s how the public often pays the price of bitcoin mining across the country. (The New York Times, $)

Parking: More than a quarter of downtown Houston’s land serves as parking spaces, a higher share than most other major U.S. cities. (Houston Chronicle, $)

COVID-19: Here’s a guide for El Pasoans to navigate an end to health benefits that began at the start of COVID-19, such as SNAP allotments, the Medicaid extension and free COVID-19 testing. (El Paso Matters)
PENCIL US IN
🗣️ Join us this afternoon for a conversation about confronting illegal fentanyl use in Texas

As Texas lawmakers and advocates work to push back against the drastic increase in opioid overdose deaths in the last three years, join The Texas Tribune at 3 p.m. today for a free, public conversation event. Legislators and policy experts will discuss recent efforts to combat overdoses and mitigate the spread of synthetic opioids in the state.

RSVP today.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
Nearly 40 protestors with Texas Students for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion join in chants against HB1 Rider No. 186, which would defund DEI initiatives at public universities, at the State Capitol rotunda.
Nearly 40 protesters at the Texas Capitol rotunda on March 23 joined in chants against a proposed change in the Texas House’s version of the state budget that would defund diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public universities. Photo by Leila Saidane/The Texas Tribune.
THE LAST WORD
“On the one hand, I’m happy. On the other hand, I’m thinking of the people who will suffer or die over the next four bienniums. This has gone on for decades, and we’re still dragging this along and kicking that can.”
— Amite Dominick, president of Texas Prisons Community Advocates, who said she had hoped lawmakers would put up the money to install air conditioning in all prisons this session.
Allyson Waller headshot
By Allyson Waller
[email protected]

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Raise Your Hand Texas - No matter what an education voucher is called, the policy is the same. Vouchers divert public funds to private schools and vendors.

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