Good morning,

Greg Abbott isn't happy with the Texas House on their treatment of his marquee legislative initiative. In the One Click Survey, we're asking what readers think about the dimming prospects for school choice.

This is the Texas Minute for Monday, May 15, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

🎧 BORDER INVASION: The Way Forward

• Texas continues to face an unprecedented crisis caused by open border policies. As Mexican drug cartels smuggle indentured servants and drugs across the southern border, Texans are struggling to fend off the invasion.
      

• In this final episode of EXPOSED, Season 5, host Wade Miller explores ways Texas can secure the border. EXPOSED is available on all major podcasting platforms.

Texas House Finally Gives Tentative Approval to Ban on Child Gender Mutilation

• Initial approval was given in the Texas House to legislation banning procedures designed to mutilate and sterilize children. As Brandon Waltens reports, the measure was finally given a vote after House Speaker Dade Phelan allowed the Democrats to twice derail the debate on procedural grounds.

        
• Authored by State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Senate Bill 14 protects children from being chemically castrated by puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and bans mutilative surgeries to “transition” their physical appearance.
      
• “We don’t treat mental health disorders with surgery. We treat mental health disorders with mental health treatments,” said State Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress) when presenting the measure to his colleagues.
       
• After Democrats tried unsuccessfully to water down the legislation, it passed the House by a vote of 92-48 with several Democrats joining Republicans in support.
      
• A final vote is scheduled for today in the Texas House.

House Works To Chill Political Speech

• Burdensome new regulations approved by the Texas House could have a chilling effect on political speech and civic activism, explains Darrell Frost.
       
• House Bill 1585 by State Rep. Charlie Geren (R–Fort Worth) would establish new requirements for both individuals and organizations seeking to influence legislation or a race for speaker of the Texas House. Among other things, anyone who promotes a candidate for House speaker would be required to pay up to $750 and register as a state lobbyist.
     
• Geren told his colleagues that he wants to regulate “outside sources” (a euphemism in the Texas Capitol to describe voters and taxpayers) that “advertise" or otherwise post content on social media.
      

• Central Texas attorney Tony McDonald said Geren's legislation is a “thinly disguised ruse aimed at stifling political speech.” He described the legislation as unlikely to survive a court challenge.

      
• The measure passed the House by a vote of 131-14 and now awaits a hearing in the Texas Senate.

Abbott To House: Real School Choice Or Else

• With an anemic “school choice” proposal set to be considered Monday in the Texas House Committee on Public Education, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Sunday he would veto the measure if it were to somehow reach his desk. And, as Brandon Waltens reports, Abbott warned that if meaningful universal school choice doesn’t pass the chamber, he will bring lawmakers back for “special sessions.”
      

• Take note of the plural.
      

• The Texas House has repeatedly rebuffed efforts to implement school choice, despite the issue being a priority of the Republican Party of Texas and the governor. 
      

• “This latest version does little to provide meaningful school choice, and legislators deserve to know that it would be vetoed if it reached my desk,” said Abbott. He added that "failure to expand the scope of school choice to something close to the Senate version or the original House version of the Senate bill will necessitate special sessions. Parents and their children deserve no less."
      

• School choice polls well with parents and voters from both parties, but the Texas House has historically sided instead with the government school bureaucracy in opposition.
      

• Republican lawmakers need to figure out who they are representing: the monopoly government school system, or parents and taxpayers.

Other Education Reforms Also In Danger

• In the final weeks of Texas’ regular legislative session, public education advocates are making a final pitch to lawmakers to pass key reforms that would hold schools accountable to parents. Erin Anderson has the story.

      
• A network of parents, educators, and pro-family organizations from across the state has advocated for fixes to the troubled public education system that will put students and families first. That network, known as Texas Education 911, is sounding the alarm that a special session will likely be needed if parents are to be empowered.
     
• One of the major reforms endorsed by Texas Education 911 is removing school districts’ governmental immunity and allowing parents to sue schools that violate students’ rights. Another measure would create the office of a parent ombudsman in an effort to “level the playing field” for parents forced to fight local school districts on behalf of their children.
       
• “Unfortunately, without enforcement of the laws, parents and children, as well as teachers, are left in tenuous situations, often full of fear and frustration,” explained a letter delivered to lawmakers from the network's organizers.
      
• In the article, you will find a list of the group's priority reforms that are still on life support.

Teacher Allowed To Resign After Arrest

• An elementary school teacher in Killeen Independent School District was allowed to resign following his arrest for soliciting sex with a minor rather than be fired. 
      

• Klay Camp was arrested on May 6 and charged with online solicitation of a minor under 14 years of age, a second-degree felony. He worked in the Killeen ISD’s elementary Disciplinary Alternative Education Program.

      
• If convicted, Camp faces two to 20 years in prison.

Google Agrees To Settlement Over False Advertising Claim

• After accusing Google of using false advertising to promote the Google Pixel 4 smartphone, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reached an $8 million settlement with the technology giant. Katy Marshall has the details.

       
• The settlement with Texas is in addition to the $9.4 million Google paid out to the Federal Trade Commission and seven states (including Texas) over issues related to an advertising campaign in which radio hosts and social media influencers were paid to make statements that were not true.
       
• The AG’s office accused Google of “prioritizing profits over truthfulness” by continuing to circulate ads they knew were both deceptive and in violation of state law. 
        
• “Texas will do whatever it takes to protect our citizens and our state economy from corporations’ false and misleading advertisements,” said Paxton. “If Google is going to advertise in Texas, their statements better be true. In this case, the company made statements that were blatantly false, and our settlement holds Google accountable for lying to Texans for financial gain.”

ONE CLICK SURVEY

After being promoted by Gov. Greg Abbott as his top legislative priority for 2023, legislation providing universal and meaningful school choice to parents appears unlikely to pass the Texas House. A watered-down and severely limited version of the Senate's original measure pushed by House members has drawn the ire of Gov. Abbott.

Should Abbott call lawmakers into a special session on the issue?

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!