Good morning,

Parents, not the government, have the responsibility to raise children into adulthood. Yet, some would suggest—even demand—otherwise. I end the week by reflecting on the practical consequences of convincing parents to abdicate their responsibilities.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 23, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas Attorney General Sues El Paso Group for Facilitating Border Crisis

• El Paso-based Annunciation House is being accused by the Attorney General of Texas of facilitating unlawful entry into the U.S., harboring illegal aliens, human smuggling, and operating a stash house. Luca Cacciatore has the details. 
    
• Annunciation House, which has operated several shelters in El Paso for years, describes itself as a Catholic nonprofit intent on aiding illegal aliens “through hospitality, advocacy, and education.”
       
• “The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling,” noted Attorney General Ken Paxton in announcing his office's lawsuit.
       
• Annunciation House has been trying to impede an ongoing OAG investigation, leading Paxton to ask a court for the liquidation of the organization's assets and to revoke its authorization to do business in Texas.

Another Denton Administrator Uses Taxpayer Resources to Push Anti-Conservative Political Messages

• In an apparent violation of state laws against public employees electioneering with taxpayer funds, another Denton Independent School District administrator has been caught crossing legal lines. The principal emailed employees encouraging them to vote in the Republican primary election, decrying school choice, and promising “coverage” at work for them to vote. Sydnie Henry has the details.
       
• As was reported earlier this week, a different district administrator—who is married to this second one—was electioneering with taxpayer resources in a move described by Attorney General Ken Paxton as "illegal."
       
• Now, even more direct political messages from her husband, Jesus Lujan, have come to light. He sent a highly charged leftist political message to his staff and promised the district would provide "coverage" for voting if they did so in the GOP primary. He went a step further and sent a sample ballot to the school's "team leaders" marked with his endorsements.

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• “It is absolutely improper for publicly funded entities like school districts to engage in electioneering as Denton ISD has done,” said Paxton.

Texas Tech Professor Publicly Promotes Antisemitic Views

• An assistant professor in Texas Tech's College of Education has taken to posting antisemitic views, attacking the United States, and engaging in profanity-laced tirades against those who support Israel. Kristen Stanciu investigates what the postings signal to Texas taxpayers, Tech alumni, and others.
    
• Jairo Funez-Flores specializes in decolonial studies, ethnography, and activist research. He has been increasingly strident in espousing antisemitic views and far-left positions on social media.
       
• Benji Gershon, president of Dallas Jewish Conservatives, was alarmed by Funez-Flores’ comments and says they do not reflect well on Texas Tech. "He most certainly would have been fired if he were speaking about another race or people."
        
• Steve Baxter, a 1974 graduate of Texas Tech, told Texas Scorecard he is "disappointed" that professors like Funez-Flores are being subsidized by taxpayers.
      
• According to legal expert Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, "tolerance only seems to run to those on the far left."
      
• Texas Tech was apprised of Stanciu's research but did not respond to a request for comment.

Patrick Endorses GOP Challenger to Rep. Drew Darby

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced yesterday he has endorsed Stormy Bradley's challenge to incumbent Drew Darby in the San Aneglo-based House District 72 GOP primary. Will Biagini has the story.
       
• Bradley was also endorsed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott late last year, largely because of Darby's opposition to school choice.
       
• “Stormy Bradley is a dedicated, conservative fighter who is committed to protecting Texas values,” explained Patrick, focusing on her commitment to border security. 

A ‘Dark Day’ for Houston Police

• Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called it a “dark day” for his department at a press conference announcing that 4,107 adult sexual assault cases were wrongly closed without investigation. Charles Blain details what happened.
    
• A case management code “suspended for lack of personnel” was used, which led to closing the cases without actually investigating them. Finner said he was first made aware the code existed in 2021 and instructed HPD’s special victims division to stop using it; however, he learned earlier this month it was still being used.
       
• He has ordered a review of all cases suspended using this code dating back to 2016. Investigators have begun contacting victims to notify them of the mistake and try to get their cooperation in reopening the cases.

Tarrant County Commissioners End Taxpayer-funded Bus Services for Election Day

• Emily Medeiros reports that Tarrant County’s governing body has voted to end a five-year program that provides free bus services for voters on Election Day. 
    
• In a 3-2 party-line vote this week, Republicans on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court ended the subsidy partnership with Trinity Metro. County Judge Tim O’Hare told Texas Scorecard that the court rejected the proposal because he believes it is not within the role of the county government to get people to the polls.
       
• “There is no such thing as ‘free’ transportation to the polls when it is paid for by taxpayer funds. That is why we rejected the proposal.” - Tim O'Hare

Houston ISD Efficiency Report Outlines Changes

• With Houston ISD still operating under a state takeover, local officials have outlined in a new report the “most important systemic challenges” they are addressing to bring about reforms. 
       
• Perhaps most significant is work to align action plans with the budget. Prior to the state takeover, the report asserts there was little effort to do this. As a result, there were steady increases in staffing and expenditures with little justification. A May 2023 report found that even as district enrollment dropped by 27,000 students, the per-student spending increased by 61 percent.
        
• The report notes that the district took in and spent $1.2 billion in COVID-19 aid over the past three years, which “did not result in higher academic achievement, improved quality of instruction, or more efficient systems.” In one instance, HISD used federal aid to purchase 175 buses for $20 million despite already having a surplus of extra buses.

Friday Reflection
Train Up Your Child…

In the 1980s, Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox parroted the long-standing leftist line that parents shouldn’t be trusted to raise their kids, let alone educate them at home. The Texas judiciary eventually laughed those arguments out of court, but that school of thought—if you will pardon the pun—drives education policy around the nation. And it does so at the peril of the republic.

If reading the Bible does nothing else, it should drive home the importance of parenthood. If we take nothing else from the Bible’s unflinching narratives about families and nations, it could be that no responsibility is more serious than educating the next generation.

Consider the story of Abimelech, one of Gideon’s seventy sons. Yes, seventy. While Gideon was a hero early in his life, his final days saw a man who poorly handled fame and fortune. He led his countrymen astray, and as we see in the life of Abimelech, he did an even worse job with his own kids.

Gideon had refused to become a king, which was a good thing, but Abimelech had other designs. He killed all his brothers except one and went about the task of subduing the country. Eventually, his dreams were dashed when he was struck on the head by a rock dropped on him by an unknown woman. As he lay dying, Abimelech ordered his armor-bearer to run him through, so no one would say a woman killed him. (But all you ladies know the score.)

Gideon made a mess of his kids and his country, and his kid made the country worse. The lives of Gideon and Abimelech provide a cautionary tale of what happens when parents do not do their job.

It is the responsibility of parents to direct their children in the path of godliness. As Proverbs 22:6 so famously puts it, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

In the modern era, education has been reduced to little more than a unionized widget factory. Children are shoved in one end with the expectation that they will be stamped anonymously into a shape approved by those running the factory. The schools are to produce good little serfs.

That’s not how it is supposed to be.

The Texas Constitution describes the purpose of education as a “general diffusion of knowledge” that is “essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people.”

In a rather short period of time, we went from a system devoted to ensuring the preservation of God-given liberties to one pushing pornography in libraries. In the upside-down world of modern government education, children are taught that the color of their skin is more important than the content of their character. Meanwhile, the academic evidence indicates that our schools are failing to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Education has gone from "training up" a child to tearing down the moral and religious upbringing students receive from their families. The consequences for our communities and families have been severe.

We all know Jim Mattox was dead wrong. The state might do a decent job creating serfs, but it does a miserable job building up citizens in the godly pursuit of liberty and self-governance.

As parents, our most awesome responsibility isn’t building wealth for ourselves or providing material trinkets to our kids. Rather, we must secure the future for our children and their republic by training them to love God and serve their neighbors.

Quote-Unquote

"It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children: but it is our duty, to leave liberty to them."

– John Dickinson