Good morning, 

The answers to yesterday's One Click Survey demonstrate you do not have to be an Aggie to be concerned with the hiring of an Obama appointee who pushes leftist ideology as the university's new president. Find the survey results and reader opinions below.

This is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Border Crossers Get GPS Coordinates to Plan Illegal Entry

• As illegal aliens continue to flood the southwest border, it has been revealed that these foreign nationals are provided with GPS coordinates that enable them to gather at specific locations on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande so they can cross en masse. Emily Medeiros has the story.
       
• Although it is unclear who is behind the new scheme, Border Hawk News reports that some have indicated Mexican authorities may be involved. 
   
• A previous report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) uncovered that President Joe Biden’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been coordinating mass swims across the Rio Grande.

Will Abbott Call Another Special Session?

• With Thanksgiving having come and gone, giving a short reprieve to the special sessions in the state legislature, lawmakers are set to return this week. When they left town, the Texas House had voted to kill Gov. Greg Abbott's main reason for having the special session in the first place: implementing a school choice program.
           
• As Brandon Waltens explains, the session is set to end on Dec. 6, and many are wondering if Abbott will force lawmakers into another round of legislative action.
      
• The plan pushed by Gov. Abbott and passed by the Texas Senate would create Education Savings Accounts. Students enrolled in the program would receive money that they could use to pay for tuition at a private school.
       
• At different times, Abbott has given different answers on the possibility of additional special sessions. Ahead of the third special session, Abbott indicated he would call lawmakers back for two additional sessions.
       
• More recently, Abbott said he would keep calling lawmakers back if school choice did not pass. “We’d be spending December here, maybe January here, maybe February here.”
       
• But after the House gutted the plan, Abbott instead offered a blanket endorsement for any Republican who did not outright oppose his measure.
       
• If Abbott does call a fifth special session, it will be only the second time a governor has called five special sessions. The current record is six, called by Gov. Bill Clements in 1990.

DeSantis Files For Place on Texas Ballot

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis became the third man to file for the presidential nomination on the 2024 Texas GOP primary ballot. President Donald Trump was the first to file, followed by Dallas pastor Ryan Binkley.
      
• Filing the paperwork yesterday on behalf of DeSantis was outgoing State Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) and Chad Wilbanks, a vocal anti-Trump political consultant and Austin-based lobbyist. Wilbanks currently lobbies the Texas Legislature on behalf of a highly subsidized wind power service.
       
• The DeSantis campaign has not responded to questions about Wilbanks' presence at the filing.
      
• Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott became the latest statewide official to endorse Trump, joining those previously made by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Ag Commissioner Sid Miller, and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham.

Two School Districts Ditch TASB For New Group

• Two North Texas school districts have ditched the state’s controversial school board association and switched to a new competitor, ending the old organization’s decades-long monopoly.  Erin Anderson has the details.
      
• Carroll and Princeton Independent School Districts voted this month to partner with Texans for Excellence in Education, becoming the new association’s first member districts.
       
• TEE was launched earlier this year to meet parents’ and school districts’ demand for an alternative to the old and increasingly politicized Texas Association of School Boards. Until now, TASB claimed all of the state's school districts as members.
      
• In recent years, TASB has engaged in lobbying the legislature on behalf of what it claims are school district interests, and often against the interests of students, parents, and the taxpayers paying the bill.
        
• “TEE was created to break TASB’s unchecked monopoly, offer competition, and reinvigorate the roles of trustees in setting the agenda for their public school districts.” – TEE president John Petree

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Abbott's Appointments

• A new investigative series by Robert Montoya looks at Gov. Greg Abbott's appointments. The first installment explored the extent to which the Bush family and their political advisors have influenced and infiltrated Abbott's appointments.
       
• Part two—which launches today at noon—will look at how Abbott's appointees for various state jobs have either contradicted his professed political beliefs or displayed a lack of competency for the tasks they were tapped to accomplish.

Got Your Tickets?

• We're just days away from this year’s Conservative Leader Awards, and it will be a night to remember.
      
• This is the annual event where grassroots activists are honored for fighting for the Lone Star State! Join us in Irving on Dec. 9.
      
• Get your tickets NOW!

MACIAS: Get Ready for 2024!

• In the latest edition of his show, Luke Macias explains the political groundwork being laid for the 2024 elections by Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. And, more importantly, looks at what voters should be doing now to prepare for the ballot box.

Another Phelan Loyalist Retires After Voting Against School Choice

• After voting with Democrats to kill a school choice proposal in the Texas House, State Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-Bryan) has announced he will not be seeking re-election.

       
• Since entering the legislature, Kacal has been seen as one of the chamber's most liberal Republicans by working against conservative reforms.
        
• Kacal had previously announced his intention to run for another term, but then voted with Democrats and a minority of the GOP caucus to gut Gov. Greg Abbott's school choice legislation earlier this month.

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Quote-Unquote

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

– Ronald Reagan​

Y'All Answered

Even though Texas law now bans state colleges and universities from promoting the radical leftwing agenda known as "diversity, equity, and inclusion," Texas A&M University is preparing to name as its new president an ardent proponent of the disgraced ideology. 

Yesterday, we asked readers if the Board of Regents should continue forward with this hire. Nearly 97 percent of readers responded negatively; only 3.1 percent said the hiring should proceed.

Here is a sampling of the responses we received.

• “I have suspended all my giving to my school. Texas A&M was a God-fearing, country-loving place, for the most part, when I was there in the early eighties. I’m ashamed of what it has become known for.” – Kirk Lewis
      

• "I am a 1971 and 1973 graduate of A&M and have always been proud of the college I had attended until recent years. I guess I can blame our Governor for this, since he is the one who appoints the board, which is supposed to keep A&M on the correct path.  A&M needs to get back to providing a good education to its students." – Kay Dillingham
      

• "We need a different President who will filter through and push out the many radical professors who are already there.  I am a 3rd generation Aggie (both granddads class of ‘22 & ‘26, father class of ‘55 and uncle class of ‘59) and have witnessed the slow turning away from our national Biblical roots beginning when I was a student there starting in 1976." – Davis Ford
      

• “I’m an Aggie grad, and know this is terribly embarrassing for our once proud, conservative school.” – Jane Anne Sellars
      

• “All of these state-funded schools that continue to promote these ideologies should be stripped of funding and be allowed to crumble into a pile of dust.” – Don Hillis
      

• “Until Republican parents stop paying communist colleges to radicalize their adult children, nothing will change.” – Catherine Buschold
     

• “People used to relate Texas A&M with strong conservative values and The University of Texas as raging leftists. These days, it seems that all public higher education facilities are cesspools of liberal indoctrination.” – Zack Dunnam
      

• “Any and all taxpayer funding should be withheld from TAMU. DEI is nothing but reverse racism.” – Cathy Hess
      

• “The problem with diversity, equity, and inclusion is the very fact that it does none of these.” – Arthur Potter
      

• “I’ve listened to ‘Aggie jokes’ all my adult life, and this action may prove that they are actually deserved…” – Dana Kay
      

• "I am an Old Ag now, Class of 79. So who is to blame? Regents? Yes. But who appoints them? Abbott! Time to say goodbye to the Guv." – Dale Zuck
      

• “A&M has never been a Christian institution, but at least it was conservative. Now, it is neither. Which helps illustrate if a society and its institutions are not tethered to Christ, it will soon drift away into progressive relativism and chaos.” – Bill Peacock
      

• "More and more, I truly fear we have completely lost our country. A&M is just another example of what has rotted from within." – Nancy Wood
      

• "TAMU used to be a bastion of conservatism and could be counted on as such, now they are beginning to look as liberal as UT!" – Michael Walton
      

• “A&M continues its downward spiral to destroy one of the great universities in the country.  As great as their alumni are, I am surprised that they have not been in an uproar over the direction the university is going.” – Carroll Knight
     

• “It is way past time for taxpayers to stop funding all of these colleges and universities, especially when all they want to do is bite the hand that feeds them.” – Al Crable
      

• “NO! A&M should NOT name a DEI proponent and Obama appointee as its new president! My two oldest children are current students at A&M, and the level of leftist influence that they’ve experienced in the past 3+ years has been downright disgusting for a university that was ‘supposed’ to be fairly conservative. This new president will only make it worse!” – Dana Krasinksi
     

• "This is totally unacceptable and an insult to we the people." – Roy Getting
      

• "As a Texas A&M Former Student, I'm thoroughly disgusted with the direction of the university. In its bid for prominence in Texas, it's become too large, and I fear too impersonal to maintain more than lip service to the traditions that set it apart." – Cindy Armstrong
      

• “No. And not only no, but the governor should call for the resignation of the board of regents and replace them with conservatives, and dare I say, Republicans.” – Chris Breaux
      

• "As a Texas Aggie class of '79, I am sad to say that the university I attended no longer exists. It makes me very sad." – Bari Tinker
     

• "As an old Aggie I have seen traditions and other conservative ideas going away at TAMU. It’s not the A&M that I attended in the ‘70s. It’s becoming tu of college station." – Allan Gillies
       

• “Texas A&M was known for the conservative values it brought to the students and alumni.  How dare they bring another liberal President to represent this outstanding university. Our entire country is out of whack, and I’m truly disappointed in the values people hold today. TAMU is headed in the wrong direction once again!” – Sharon Buckwalter
      

• “Governor Abbott needs to hold the Board of Regents accountable.” – Thomas Camardo
      

• “We already have too many uber-liberal universities in this state.” – Kimery McKaskle
      

• “Does it matter? A degree with a mortgage price tag paying in McDonald’s salary. Yeah.  Sign me up.” – Corey Mayo
      

• “I voted yes, only because I would love to see Greg Abbott pull the $1.19 billion the State of Texas granted Texas A&M this year.” – Charles Burke
      

• “I once held our 'Texas' universities in high regard. Now they all seem to be disappointing on a regular basis in one way or another. This is just another example.” – Bob Forsythe

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