Good morning,

As the legislative session rushes toward its conclusion, Michael Quinn Sullivan's Friday Reflection focuses on the need for citizens not to grow idle.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, May 12, 2023.

– Brandon Waltens 

School Choice Hits Another Roadblock

• Legislation to expand parental choice in education has experienced yet another setback in the Texas House, as the clock ticks on the legislative session in Austin. 
    

• Passed by the Senate over a month ago, Senate Bill 8 by State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe) would fund education savings accounts at $8,000 per student a year and provide a reimbursement of $10,000 to rural school districts with fewer than 20,000 students for each student who withdraws from public school.
   

• In addition to creating ESAs, Senate Bill 8 would expand parental rights by standardizing the district grievance process, requiring consent for the administration of any psychological tests, providing transparency of instructional materials, and prohibiting teaching on sexual orientation or gender identity.
   

• While the bill has stalled for over a month in the House, a new version—known as a committee substitute—is being proposed that would further limit the number of students the bill would apply to as well as remove the parental protections on radical gender ideology in school curriculum.
   

• Even this further watered down version is having issues in the House.
   

• While committees are required by the House rules to give three days’ notice before meeting, it is customary for House members to grant exceptions so that committees can pass bills out, especially in the final days of the session.
   

• When the chair of the Public Education Committee recently attempted to do just that, however, the House voted 65-76 against their meeting.

The Border Invasion Gets Worse

• Thousands of illegal aliens are flooding north to, and past, Texas’ border with Mexico, as Title 42 comes to an end. Throughout the day on Thursday, they were seen crossing the border south of El Paso without any consequences or resistance from state and local officials. Michael Quinn Sullivan reports from El Paso. 
   

• As federal officials, military personnel, and state law enforcement looked on, illegal aliens brazenly cut through freshly laid razor wire to enter holding areas established by federal officials.

    
• In El Paso, one young man told Texas Scorecard he had been “bused” through Mexico from El Salvador. He wore new shoes, apparently a gift from one of the groups enabling the flow of illegal aliens once they come into the country. He did not want to answer questions about how his trip was funded. When asked why he came to the U.S., the young man smiled and walked away.
   
• During the day Thursday, migrants—individuals who were not yet in the U.S. illegally—could be seen often running to holding areas. They were not being chased, but rather attempting to get in line ahead of hundreds—possibly tens of thousands—of others coming behind them.

📺 WATCH: Ted Cruz on The Headline

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz joins The Headline today to talk about the disastrous failures that have led to this crisis on the southern border.
      
• You can watch The Headline on the Apple TV or Roku apps, on an iOS or Android phone, or on the Texas Scorecard YouTube channel.

Legislation to Combat Child Trafficking Heads to Governor

• Texas lawmakers delivered legislation to the governor’s desk that strengthens state and local officials’ authority to investigate, prosecute, and prevent child sex trafficking—a multibillion-dollar racket that is one of the fastest-growing organized crime activities in the United States. Erin Anderson has the details. 
   

• In 2016, an estimated 79,000 minors were victims of sex trafficking in Texas.
   

• Senate Bill 1527 by State Sen. Joan Huffman (R–Houston), which includes several provisions to crack down on criminals who sexually exploit children, was finally sent to Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this week.

    
• The legislation increases penalties for certain sex trafficking and child pornography crimes, allows more evidence to be considered during prosecutions, and adds protections for trafficking victims.

Texas A&M Pushes DEI

• Another public Texas university is promoting critical race theory and other divisive racial ideologies to students.
   

• Katy Marshall details a new report from investigative journalist Christopher Rufo explaining how Texas A&M University is expanding its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts across all college departments in a “stunning process of ideological capture.”

    

• Rufo shared documents from A&M’s Office of Diversity describing the university’s Academic Affairs Climate and Diversity Committee, which is implementing the school’s “Diversity Plan.”
   

• Another document shows how university leadership embraced the idea that Texas A&M is a “systemically racist institution” following the racial unrest sparked by George Floyd’s death in 2020.
   

• Earlier this week, the Texas House Higher Education Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 17, which would prohibit public universities from establishing a DEI office, using DEI criteria in their hiring practices, or requiring employees or prospective employees to attend DEI trainings.
   

• Although the issue is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities, the House committee left SB 17 pending.

Friday Reflection:
Just Keep Doing Good!

There are a lot of quirky phrases we use every day, and everyone knows what we mean when we say them, even if we don’t exactly know where they come from … phrases like “face the music” or “keep your eyes peeled.” I’m honored to have my brain picked, but I’m worried when someone says they have a bone to pick with me.

Perhaps my favorite such phrase is “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” Okay, “favorite” might be a stretch. Perhaps it is better to say that phrase has been used often in my life, directed at me … by myself as often as by others.

No one gets in more trouble than someone who is idle. We were made to be active and productive. Something deep within our created spirit knows that “doing nothing” isn’t natural, and so in idleness, we start doing what we shouldn’t.

St. Paul addressed that in his second letter to the people of Thessalonica. In the NIV translation, the letter warns the readers “to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.” In the ESV, it is rendered as “keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.”

Whichever of those you prefer, the ordering is purposeful. The warning is against spending time with those believers – those “brothers” – who are idle. Like a virus, the state of being idle is a degenerative disease. When it grips its victim, even the “believer” is drawn into disruptive activities and – very quickly – outright sin. As Paul later adds, “some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.”

We see this all the time.

In my experience, lawmakers go bad – and get trapped in scandal – because they spend free time away from their families, friends, and the accountability of honest work back home. They end up hanging out in places they shouldn’t with bad company, rather than making the effort to go home – even if it is to “face the music” from their constituents. They justify it by the sympathy-inducing claim of needing to “get rest.” But more often than not, that “rest” turns into idleness, which leads to distractions that are altogether unrighteous.

A friend, who knows himself and his own susceptibility to vice, likes to say he can get rest when he’s dead. That’s probably the right way to look at it, scripturally. By the standard of St. Paul’s life, I certainly think he would agree with the sentiment.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul made a pretty explicit promise. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.”

I take that to mean this: When I am feeling weighed down by a calling to be in the fight, I need to fight harder. When I’m feeling tired of being engaged, I need to look for more to do. I am called to be faithful in fighting forward.

Our high calling as citizens is to never, never, never give up. But our even higher calling, as a people of faith, is to keep pressing upward in doing good.

Now Available: 'Reflections on Life & Liberty'

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