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Good morning,

In today's Texas Minute, you will meet the final recipient of the 2024 Conservative Leader Award!

I recently learned that Americans owe nearly $1.2 trillion in credit card debt... but that doesn't begin to account for the even bigger burden that weighs us down. So, I end the week reflecting on how to get out from under that weight.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Friday, Dec. 20, 2024 

Texans Pay $50,000 per Student at Government-run Schools

• According to data reviewed by economist Vance Ginn, Texas taxpayers pay an average of more than $50,000 per pupil for the state’s government-run schools. Luca Cacciatore has the details.
    
• Ginn has calculated that when maintenance and operations (M&O) and debt service (I&S) taxes are combined with current levels of outstanding debt, the total per-pupil cost is $50,334.
       
• The average private school tuition, meanwhile, is only $11,340 annually per pupil.
       
• "Funding per student has increased by 42 percent since 2011, while student proficiency in 8th-grade math has declined by 40 percent," said Ginn. "We have an overfunding and overspending problem in Texas, and more spending will never improve education outcomes in a flawed government school monopoly system."
       
• Data from Texas Policy Research finds that per-pupil spending has increased annually for a decade. Total government school spending has jumped approximately 45 percent—from $60.4 billion to $92.4 billion.

You Could Soon Pay With Gold, Silver in Texas

• Republican State Rep. Mark Dorazio of San Antonio wants to let Texans use gold and silver bullion as legal tender. As Adam Cahn reports, Dorazio is invoking a frequently overlooked provision in the U.S. Constitution that would permit the state comptroller to authorize the use of gold and silver as currency.
       
• Historically, Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution has been used to prevent states from issuing paper money, but the clause also allows states to use gold and silver without permission from the federal government.
      
• On the March 2024 GOP primary ballot, 76 percent of voters supported a ballot measure testing interest in the concept.
      
• "Texas has a clear chance to lead on transactional gold. There are 30 states considering this, but Texas has the advantage with our own Bullion Depository. This is a perfect step for freedom-loving Texans to protect against inflation and too much money printing." – Kevin Freeman, author of "Pirate Money"

Critical Race Theory in Architecture? Check the Texas Tech Library

• Texas Tech’s architecture library collection houses books that espouse critical race theory in a section called “Social Justice and the Built Environment.” Valerie Muñoz has the story.
    
• The "diversity, equity, and inclusion" push in university library collections can be attributed to a 2022 research report by Texas Tech librarians on how to support DEI research through library collections. The researchers concluded that the lack of “DEI award” books at Texas Tech needed to be addressed.
       
• DEI titles have since been added across various library sections at Texas Tech, but the most prevalent—and unexpected—are those in the architecture library.
       
• One book, "Blackness and the Built Environment," is described as proposing "the construction of a Black radical position: building islands of resistance against the expanding sea of imperial architecture.”
       
• Other titles include “Gender and Sexuality & the Built Environment” and “Climate and Environmental Justice Issues.”

Three More Texas Teachers Nabbed for Child Porn

• Three more teachers have been nabbed in the last week over charges related to child pornography. Erin Anderson reports the men worked in Dallas, Leander, and Wall school districts.
    
• Sean Turner, a music teacher at Adamson High School in Dallas ISD, was arrested for possession of pornography featuring a child younger than 10 years old. His social media account shows he was a fan of Black Lives Matter and opposed the re-election of Donald Trump.
      
• Curtis John Locklear, a principal in Leander ISD from 1995 until 2008, has been charged with felony possession of child porn. His lifetime educator certifications are now listed as "under review" by the Texas Education Agency.
       
• Joshua Carroll, an assistant band director in Wall ISD, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for possessing and producing child porn. He was caught sending sexually explicit messages and images to several underage female students and asking them to share explicit pictures with him.

Harris County Increases Charges Against Guatemalan Illegal

• Charges against Guatemalan illegal alien Ruben Dario Visquerra Aguilar have been raised from harboring a runaway child to child trafficking and sexual assault of a child. Michael Wilson reports the case is related to a 16-year-old girl who went missing from Idaho.
    
• Allegedly, Aguilar paid $1,400 to arrange transportation for the teenager from Idaho to Houston.
      
• Records show Aguilar entered the United States illegally as an unaccompanied minor.

Conservative Leader Award 2024

And the rest of the 2024 honorees...

The Conservative Leader Award began in 2014. On our website, you can meet the honorees from previous years.

Friday Reflection
Christmas Debts

Americans currently owe nearly $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, with 28 percent of the people still paying off purchases from last Christmas. Culturally, we need a little less eggnog and a lot more fiscal responsibility.

There is a certain poetry to the debt we amass leading up to Christmas.

As religious celebrations go, Christmas has become a safe secular holiday. It demands nothing but good cheer, eggnog, and the dying remains of a tree in your living room.

Look too closely at it, though, and the secular observance of Christmas makes less sense. We rack up heavy credit card debt to buy things our loved ones probably don’t need. We trade the momentary “joy” of watching them unwrap the gift for months of stress trying to figure out how to pay for it.

Which, of course, is precisely why the arrival of Jesus was necessary.

Sin, like those Christmas purchases online, can seem innocuous enough. We can easily justify our sins. They feel good in the moment and are always wrapped in a pleasing, convenient package. It is only later, when confronted with the actual cost, that we become aware of the burden sin lays on us.

Mankind amassed a debt of sin, a price we could never pay by our individual or collective efforts. Yet God, in His time and mercy, made a provision for our relief.

Christmas looks back at that moment in time when the Godhead put on Manhood. The Son began humbly walking to Calvary as the only acceptable and complete propitiation for our sins.

It’s noteworthy that the Bible puts our sin in the context of a debt. That is why, on the cross, Jesus’ final recorded word was “tetelestai.” That’s an ancient Greek word used on receipts of the era to signify that something had been paid in full. “It is finished.”

At Christmas, we should rejoice that our debt of sin was paid on the cross. Perhaps, rather than fill the closets of loved ones with more junk, we should take the opportunity presented by Christmas to proclaim the good news of Christ.

It will be a while before Americans dig out from under their consumer debt, but Jesus has paid in full the price of sin. As the old hymn put it, “Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Repeat the sounding joy!”

That joy is found in knowing Jesus.

Quote-Unquote

"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white.'"

– Bing Crosby