Good morning,

Yesterday, we asked readers about school districts banning cell phones in classrooms. You'll find what they had to say down below.

But first, this is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, August 6, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

STUDY: Guaranteed Income Makes People Poorer, Sicker, and Unemployed Longer

• The results of a three-year program by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that a basic income program worsened the quality of life for recipients. Ian Camacho has the story.

      
• ChatGPT founder Sam Altman and the National Science Foundation helped fund “the largest unconditional cash transfer program evaluated by a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the U.S. to date in terms of the amount disbursed.”
      
• The study spanned rural, suburban, and urban locations in ten counties in north central Texas, including Dallas, and nine counties in Illinois, including the Chicago area. A test group of 1,000 people received an extra $1,000 monthly, while a control group of  2,000 participants received an extra $50 monthly.
       
• Among other things, participants spent nearly all their extra money on increased consumption and reduced labor. According to the study, few saved, invested, or reduced debts, which would have improved financial stability.
        
• Last year, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced a basic income pilot program funded with leftover COVID-19 federal funds. However, a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Ken Paxton has blocked it.

Texas Republicans Strengthen Push for Educational Freedom

• Putting to rest any doubt that school choice remains a top issue heading into the next legislative session, the Republican Party of Texas reaffirmed its commitment to empowering parents with the right to choose the best educational pathways for their children. Over the weekend, reports Brandon Waltens, the party leadership unanimously adopted a resolution urging Texas lawmakers to make school choice "available to all Texas students, without carveouts."
           

• A recent poll from the University of Houston's Hobby Institute found wide support for school choice among all racial and political groups... except for white Democrats, who register only 49% support. 
      

• In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick prioritized school choice, which passed the Senate numerous times. House Speaker Dade Phelan, however, has not prioritized the issue. When the issue finally came to the House floor last year, 21 Republicans joined Democrats in killing the proposal; Phelan abstained from the vote.

           
• Gov. Greg Abbott directed $6 million in spending during the 2024 Republican Primary to support candidates aligned with his vision.

Illegal Alien Charged with Involuntary Manslaughter

• Elvis Jamir Cruz-Ferrera entered Texas as an "unaccompanied minor" in 2016 at the age of 11. Now, reports Valerie Muñoz, he has been charged with involuntary manslaughter after driving recklessly and killing a college student in Virginia.
       
• Cruz-Ferrera illegally crossed the border into McAllen, where he was detained. He was then transferred to an ICE facility in San Antonio, where he was given a court date and released. He did not appear in Dallas for his hearing in 2018 when an immigration judge ordered his deportation.
      
• Despite that order, he has had numerous encounters with law enforcement, including driving without a license and reckless driving.

RELATED NEWS

• Will Biagini reports the Biden-Harris administration has been unable to keep track of unaccompanied children transferred to the care of sponsors. Outside experts believe the number may be as high as 100,000.

Austin’s Residents Concerned Over New Homeless Encampment

• Residents in the Four Points area of northwest Austin are concerned over a new homeless encampment that has formed at the site of a vacant restaurant and has grown over the past few months. Debra McClure has the details.
       
• Homeless encampments continue to pose problems in Texas' Democrat-run cities. This is especially true in Austin, where citizens have had to sue city officials to enforce a voter-approved referendum cracking down on the issue.

Galveston's Redistricting Case Stops Democrats’ Misuse of Voting Rights Act

• Galveston County just won a major redistricting case that could shift dozens of political seats in Texas and elsewhere from Democrats to Republicans at all levels of government. Erin Anderson reports on a decision issued by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

        
• The court's decision concluded that federal law does not protect “coalition” districts created by “opportunistic political combinations” of voters from different minority groups. 
       
• Galveston County was sued in 2022 over district maps for county commissioners that were redrawn following the 2020 census. The redistricting plan eliminated the lone Democrat commissioner’s majority-minority precinct, a coalition district of blacks and Hispanics. Neither blacks nor Hispanics are a large enough group in Galveston County to create a majority district.
       

• Galveston County’s attorneys successfully argued that the Voting Rights Act does not protect coalition districts, which represent political, not racial, alliances.
       

• As a result of the ruling, legal experts expect Democrats in Texas and the other states in the Fifth Circuit's jurisdiction to lose seats across all levels of government, from school boards to the state legislature to Congress.

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Quote-Unquote

"The primary goal of real education is not to deliver facts but to guide students to the truths that will allow them to take responsibility for their lives."

– John Taylor Gatto​

Y'All Answered

Advocates say the move removes a major source of distraction in the classroom. Opponents say it interferes with parents' right to monitor their children.

Yesterday, we asked readers their thoughts; 85.5 percent said districts should remove cell phones from the classroom.

Of the flood of responses that came after folks "clicked" their answer, here is a sampling of what folks had to say...

• “I applaud district efforts to restrict cell phones, but I do not support state legislation on this issue.  Local districts should decide.” – Fran Rhodes
    
• “I'd be supportive of removing cell phones from the classroom if I thought our public schools could be trusted and that the motivation was reduced screen time. However, that is impossible to believe considering the increasing amount of educational technology that is replacing traditional classroom learning via books, paper and pencils.” – Spencer Siino
    
• “Parents should be the arbiter of whether their child has a cell phone in the classroom, but teachers should have the authority to discipline any disruptive behavior.” – Helen Herd
    
• “Cell phones are the most destructive social force ever created and, in the hands of a child, the cause of what is likely irreversible generational and cultural rot.  And no one wants to admit it.” – Robert Bruce
     
• “I don't think kids should be allowed to carry their phones to the classroom. I'm from a generation where this was not an issue, and I got along just fine without a phone in class.” – Sharla Miles
    
• “There should be no student cell phones on campus.” – Ruben Montoya
    
• “I was a classroom teacher for 28 years prior to the use of cell phones in the classroom. We did not have access to Internet lessons aimed at all our subject material. Currently, I serve as a substitute teacher in the local school district and cell phones are the greatest distraction to learning at the high school level!” – Suzette Valentine
    
• “Parents should decide. Phones should not be used during class. Denying a student’s right to communicate in emergency situations is wrong.” – Truman Reid
    
• “Anytime our possessions are able to be locked away at the sole discretion of a government entity, whistles and red flags should be abundantly clear! Cell phones being a distraction is not sufficient reason to allow for unbridled intrusion!” – Sara Heizer
    
• “As an educator I can tell you phones are a major distraction. As to the parents being able to monitor their children, your child's teacher is monitoring them in class.” – Anthony Fourman
    
• “There are no parental rights that govern such a need. We shouldn’t let the inmates run the asylum.” – Mike Hess
     
• “When I first heard about it, I was all for locking up student cell phones. Then, I remembered some of the instances where kids have recorded teacher abuse and unlawful teachings.” – Michelle Lantz
    
• “Is it a distraction, or do liberal educators want to be able to remove the threat of them being recorded while they are grooming, bullying, and indoctrinating  their students?” – Landon Capozzi
    
• “My kids, both graduated,  kept their phones on silent in their bags or risked having them taken up by a teacher in class.  Students should have them in case of emergency, and how many times has school abuse been reported due to a student’s cell phone? There should be rules and consequences but school shouldn't be treated as a prison.” – Deborah Wilkey
    
• “It needs to be a combination of both. The parents should decide if their kids are allowed to have phones, the students should obey the rules of ‘No phones out while in class,’ and schools should have the authority to take the phones up if they become a distraction. Parents shouldn’t helicopter the kids, schools shouldn’t have authority to lock up phones, and kids should respect and obey both.” – Kayne Parrish
    
• “I used to trust the teaching profession implicitly, but with their severe turn left in recent times, I'm afraid this may be a move to keep anything they may want to hide from parents from being recorded. The ‘Covid’ years opened our eyes to what was being taught in our schools.” – Patricia Forsythe
    
• “I am an educator in high school.  Cell phones are a huge distraction. Kids today have no filter for anything, let alone correctness.” – Greg Reinhart
    
• “It is safer to have a phone on you in school.” – Cheryl Reed
    
• “As a former high school teacher, I can't tell you the number of times I've caught students texting in class instead of paying attention and using the phone to look up answers on a test. The phone is a distraction to the students and interferes with their education.” – B.D. Marshall

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