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Good morning,

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, February 6, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Texas Senate Passes School Choice

• Last night, the Texas Senate passed school choice legislation for the fourth time in two years, sending Gov. Greg Abbott’s priority legislation to the House. Luca Cacciatore has the details.
         
• Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) joined all of the chamber's Democrats in opposing the legislation.
       

• The Senate's new measure would provide $10,000 annually per pupil to fund accredited private school tuition, textbooks, transportation, and other expenses. Families of students with disabilities would receive $11,500 annually per pupil, and families with homeschooled students would receive $2,000 annually per pupil.
       

• Preliminary budget proposals allocate $1 billion toward school choice for the 2026-2027 school year. With that amount, around 100,000 children out of Texas’ more than five million enrolled students would be able to qualify for the program.
       

• Utilization could be slightly more or less when accounting for the fact up to 80 percent of funds are prioritized for students from low-income households or with disabilities.

      
• The vote came just days after Gov. Abbott’s State of the State address, where he declared the issue an emergency and set it up to move quickly through the legislative process. “Government-mandated schools cannot meet the unique needs of every student. But Texas can provide families with choices to meet those needs.”
      
• Meanwhile, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows and his leadership team have yet to organize the chamber for business, though they did manage to play their biennial football game. Everyone has their priorities...

Protestors Rally Against ICE at Texas Capitol

• Hundreds of protestors were at the Texas Capitol yesterday, ostensibly opposing the deportation of illegal aliens. Yet, as Will Biagini reports, the protesters waved placards with a wide variety of far-left messages.
   
• For example, one protestor marched under a sign that read, "Forced birth is fascism." Another carried a sign proclaiming, "We the people reject Project 2025."

Report: Divest From America’s Enemies

• A report generated by the Texas House Committee on Securing Texas recommends that state pension funds divest from companies headquartered within hostile nations. Robert Montoya has the story.
      
• In compiling the report over the last year, lawmakers found that American states are estimated to have invested $68 billion in China. This includes billions from Texas alone.
       
• The committee is also recommending that the state's pension funds offer “detailed disclosures” to show how the investment of taxpayer money matches fiduciary duties and national security interests.
       
• These recommendations follow Gov. Greg Abbott’s November 2024 executive order for state entities to halt new investments in China and divest from existing holdings linked to the CCP. This came after it was revealed that the investment arm of Texas A&M and the University of Texas Systems had invested in Chinese businesses.

Houston ISD Budgeted $2 Million for Bond Election Prep

• Last year, the Houston Independent School District tried to get voters to pass the largest debt package in state history. It would have cost taxpayers there nearly $9 billion, including the forecasted interest payments.
          
• The debt package was eventually shot down by voters, but Michael Wilson reports new attention is being drawn to the $2 million district officials budgeted for the election.
       
• Specifically, the line item is raising concerns about the district’s use of public funds and the legality of its spending. 
       
• Former U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick has pointed to budget documents explicitly stating that the spending would be “related to putting the plan together and hiring a consulting group to support” the effort. That "support" is at the center of the new controversy. According to the state's election code, public funds may not be used for communications that could influence a voter to support or oppose a measure.
      
• HISD has refused to comment on the matter.

Grand Prairie ISD Approves Secret Settlement With Fired Superintendent

• Following months of community complaints and calls for transparency, Erin Anderson reports that trustees in the Grand Prairie Independent School District have approved a voluntary separation agreement with their former superintendent, Jorge Arredondo.
      
• The agreement includes an undisclosed payout and hides the reasons why the district fired Arredondo after just a few months on the job.
      
• Arredondo started work on July 1 but was suspended in September for alleged violations of a board policy prohibiting discrimination, harassment, or retaliation against district employees. Following an outside investigation, trustees moved to fire Arredondo. The superintendent then sued the district, temporarily blocking his removal, but in early December trustees voted 5-2 to fire him.
     
• Grand Prairie resident and former state representative Rodney Anderson told trustees that approving a settlement with no transparency sets “a dangerous precedent” and is “a betrayal to your community.”

Texas Scorecard: Never Government Financed

• Over the last 24 hours, we've seen that a large number of "news" organizations here in the U.S. have been secretly receiving millions of tax dollars from the Deep State. The national news industry has been exposed as a propaganda machine for the crony establishment. We all "knew" it before, but now we know for sure.
      
• This is why Texas Scorecard exists: we report real news for real Texans. We're not government-approved; we make the crony politicians angry because we don't suck up to them or take their trinkets. We exist to serve you.
      
• We don’t take government grants, and we never will. We refuse to take corporate advertisements or put our content behind a paywall. Our support comes exclusively from our Texas Scorecard readers like you!

Quote-Unquote

"Man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."

– Ronald Reagan​

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