Good morning!

This marks the next-to-last One Click Survey of 2021, and it is about food.

First, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, December 21, 2021
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EXPOSED Continues Today… ‘Parents Speak Out’

• With more than a thousand school districts in Texas, it is safe to say the problems plaguing the “safe” Round Rock school district in Republican Williamson County aren’t necessarily unique. Today, Texas Scorecard releases the third episode in the first season of our EXPOSED series. 
        
• This first season is dedicated to telling the chilling story of Round Rock Independent School District. This third episode – titled “Parents Speak Out” – continues the story of the criminal allegations against the district’s superintendent, and covers what happened at an October school board meeting when parents showed up with questions.
         
• You can find EXPOSED on our website and everywhere you listen to podcasts including:

  Apple Podcasts 
  Spotify 
  Google Podcasts 
  Amazon/Audible 
  iHeartRadio

United To Employees: We’re Ignoring Abbott

• Months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order purporting to ban COVID vaccine mandates of all kinds in Texas, one of the nation’s largest airlines is telling its employees it doesn’t apply to them. Brandon Waltens has the full story.
   
• In an internal email to employees, revealed by the Texas Freedom Coalition, the Chicago-based company says it will continue to mandate COVID vaccination for its employees.
     
• The airline told Texas Scorecard that they would also work to “identify non-customer facing roles where accommodated employees can apply and continue working until it is safe for them to their return to their current positions.”  
   
• Last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld United’s vaccine mandate in a lawsuit filed by employees. While various federal vaccine mandates have been making their way through the courts, Gov. Abbott’s executive order from October banning vaccine mandates from all entities has largely been ignored.
   
• The Republican Party of Texas and more than two dozen lawmakers have called for a special session to address vaccine mandates. So far, Gov. Abbott has declined to bring the legislature back into session.

Missed Opportunities

• Looking back on 2021, Jeramy Kitchen reviews the missed opportunities to enact conservative priorities by the Republican-dominated legislature.
   

• As the 2022 primary election cycle heats up, it is almost inevitable that candidates seeking offices up and down the ballot campaign on their conservative credentials. For incumbent Republicans, much of that communication will cite their work over the last year. While lawmakers were successful in addressing some conservative activists’ requests, the question remains whether or not those items will be enough for voters to reward those incumbents with re-election.

School Officials Defend Sexually Explicit Titles

• As Texas parents speak out against sexually explicit books in their kids’ schools, they’re shocked to find school district officials defending the “graphic and inappropriate” materials. Erin Anderson reports that the McKinney Independent School District is one of the latest battlegrounds in the fight for parental oversight of public school curriculum.
   

• Among the controversial books parents are protesting is The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a 1999 novel that contains explicit descriptions of minors engaging in sex and a teenager being raped.
   

• McKinney ISD Deputy Superintendent Melinda DeFelice said the book “meets the selection criteria” in the board’s policy on instructional resources and it “will continue to circulate without restriction.”

• Meanwhile, commissioners in Williamson County decided to withhold federal coronavirus funds from two local districts—Leander ISD and Round Rock ISD—that are under fire from parents for keeping inappropriate books on their library shelves. County officials hope the move will pressure school officials to respond to parental concerns.

Today In History

The first basketball game was played on Dec. 21, 1891, in Springfield, MA.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

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