Good morning, 

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

One Month From Today!

• We are one month from the annual Conservative Leader Awards dinner, where grassroots activists are recognized and honored for leading the fight for a stronger Texas. Join us on Dec. 9, 2023, in Irving for the most encouraging night of the year!
      
• Get details and tickets today!

Report: Illegal Aliens Cost Texans $7 Billion Annually... Just For Education

• According to a study from the Huffines Liberty Foundation, the cost to Texas taxpayers of educating illegal aliens exceeds $7 billion a year. Brandon Waltens has the details.
       
• In its recommendations for policy action, the report takes aim at education-related handouts from the state to illegal aliens.
       
• The authors, Don Huffines and Bill Peacock, propose eliminating in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Texas' universities.
      
• Additionally, they recommend placing a moratorium on the enrollment of illegal aliens in public schools until the U.S. government reimburses the cost. They also believe the state should require proof of citizenship status for students and parents of students, as well as require Texas school districts to count and report all noncitizen students and all children of noncitizens.

Educators Taught How to Defy Texas' CRT Ban

• At a recent conference hosted by the Texas Association of School Boards, a breakout session had lawyers instructing educators on ways to circumvent the critical race theory ban in K-12 government schools. Valerie Muñoz has the story.
        
• In an undercover video produced by Accuracy in Media, lawyers from Thompson & Horton LLP can be heard advising conference attendees on how their teachers can continue using The 1619 Project in the classroom. The leftist series, often used as school curricula, has been criticized for its historical revisions and questionable factual accuracy.
        
• Legislation passed in 2021 was specifically designed to prevent the use of CRT in public school classrooms, and it specifically mentions The 1619 Project.

Tarrant GOP Urges Abbott to Fix Primary Elections

• Tarrant County's Republican Party chairman said an error in a new state law may put their 2024 primary election at risk. Soli Rice has the story.
       
• Legislation passed earlier this year was designed to give counties with a population of 1.2 million or less the ability to combine election precincts to serve up to 10,000 voters (increased from 5,000 voters).
      
• Yet, according to Tarrant GOP Chairman Bo French, the law appears to have "inadvertently struck a provision in the existing law that applied to all counties and allowed a political party conducting a primary election to combine election precincts to avoid unreasonable expenditures for election equipment, supplies, and personnel."

       

• As a result, Tarrant County could be required to set up approximately 400 Election Day polling locations for the primary.
       

• Legislation was filed in the third special session to address the problem. French wants Gov. Greg Abbott to include that fix on the agenda for the fourth special session. Otherwise, French says, Tarrant County and the local GOP might be required to "defy state statute" or sue to block the new law.

Houston Mayoral Race Heads to Runoff

• State Sen. John Whitmire and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee are advancing to a runoff election for Houston's next mayor; both are long-time Democrat politicians.

        
• Whitmire led the field of 17 candidates with 43.3 percent of the vote, compared to Jackson Lee's 36.3 percent.

Allen and Denton Pass Hundreds of Millions in City Bonds

• Two North Texas cities, Allen and Denton, saw passage of all but one of their bond propositions, obligating local property taxpayers to repay hundreds of millions in bond debt. Erin Anderson has the background.

       
• Voters in Allen approved four of five bond propositions totaling $155 million before interest.
        
• Denton voters approved seven of eight bond propositions totaling $290.8 million before interest. Carve-outs for “public art” were buried within four of the city’s propositions.

Cleveland Voters Reject $125 Million Bond for Colony Ridge Growth

• Residents in the Cleveland Independent School District voted against the district’s $125 million debt program to fund five major projects. Emily Medeiros notes the school district includes the controversial Colony Ridge housing development.

Prosper Voters Reject New Stadium, Pass Bonds For New Schools

• Voters in the Prosper Independent School District rejected a proposal to build the state's most expensive high school football stadium. Voters did agree to take on $4.5 billion in new spending (principal and interest) for schools, technology, and a performing arts center.

Quote-Unquote

"The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive."

– Thomas Sowell​

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