Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, August 1, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Cruz Files Measure to Safeguard Schools from Foreign Adversaries

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has introduced the Transparency in Reporting of Adversarial Contributions to Education (TRACE) Act. As Debra McClure reports, the legislation is designed to provide transparency for parents about the influence of foreign funding in schools.
        
• The Chinese Communist Party and other foreign governments have developed financial connections to U.S. schools and universities, including Texas A&M and the University of Texas. The CCP funds “Confucius Classrooms” to spread their influence among U.S. high school students.
        
• The measure has already passed the U.S. House.
      
• "The Chinese Communist Party expends vast resources to control what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think. The CCP continues to target American educational institutions, as do other foreign adversaries." – Ted Cruz

School Board Members Encouraged to Weaponize Pay Increases

• School board members were recently told to utilize teacher pay as a way to apply political pressure on the state legislature over the issue of school choice. Will Biagini has the details.
       
• At a conference hosted by the Texas Association of School Boards, the CEO of the educational consulting company Moak Casey reportedly told school board members to withhold teachers’ pay increases this year. The purpose was to mislead teachers about the reasons as a way to pressure lawmakers to advance an anti-school choice agenda.
       
• A school board member from Dripping Springs reported the incident to the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Rob McClellan described the speech by Moak Casey CEO Buck Gilcrease as "encouraging us to utilize compensation as a weapon to try to change the way our teachers would vote."
       
• When confronted, a TASB spokesman tried to distance the organization from the presentation even though Moak Casey remains one of TASB’s top vendors.

Democrat Front Group Secures Taxpayers Funds for 'Voter Registration'

• New records reveal that Civic Government Solutions, whose founder has repeatedly claimed that it’s nonpartisan, is a front group for the Democrat voter registration organization Civitech. Ian Camacho explains how the organization is receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from local governments.
        
• A review of records finds Civitech's leadership demonstrates overtly pro-Democrat, anti-Republican biases. Civitech has direct control over CGS.
       
• Meanwhile, CGS has been given taxpayer-funded grants from Travis, Harris, Bexar, and Dallas counties—all Democrat strongholds—for "voter outreach services."

What Happens to the $1.4 Billion Settlement with Meta?

• Now that Meta (the corporate owner of Facebook) has agreed to pay Texas $1.4 billion for violating users' privacy rights, Texans have wondered where those dollars will go. Brandon Waltens has the answer.
   
• The settlement, the largest ever obtained by a single state, concerns the unauthorized collection of biometric data from users.
       
• According to the Office of the Attorney General, the vast majority will go to the state general revenue fund. That means it will be up to the state legislature to decide next spring how the money will be spent.
        

• Andrew McVeigh, the president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, wants the money used for property tax relief. "The funds from this settlement should be treated the same as all surplus state revenue should be treated: returned to the taxpayer to help relieve them of their property tax burden."

COURT: Texas Can Keep Border Buoys in Place

• The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overruled a lower court's order and said Texas’ buoy barriers in the Rio Grande can remain in place. The water barricades—meant to repel illegal and sometimes dangerous water crossings—were being challenged by the Biden/Harris administration.
      
• "The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in Texas’s favor, finding that the federal district court abused its discretion when it ordered Texas to remove the buoys floating in the Rio Grande that prevent aliens from attempting a dangerous river crossing to enter America illegally." – Ken Paxton
       
• With this decision from the Fifth Circuit, the buoy barriers can remain in place despite opposition from the Biden/Harris administration.

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Quote-Unquote

"We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out."

– Theodore Roosevelt​

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