Good morning, 

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says taxpayers should not pick up the tab for the ‘indoctrination’ occurring on Texas' colleges and universities. That’s the topic for the One Click Survey.

And it is one of the stories topping the Texas Minute for Tuesday, February 22, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Yes, It Is Child Abuse

• Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the release of a formal opinion concluding that performing certain “sex-change” procedures on children, and prescribing puberty-blockers to them, is “child abuse” under Texas law. Jacob Asmussen has the story.
      
• The announcement comes despite Gov. Greg Abbott and other top Republican officials’ years-long refusal to address the issue.
     
• “There is no evidence that long-term mental health outcomes are improved or that rates of suicide are reduced by hormonal or surgical intervention,” wrote Paxton, batting down a straw-man argument advanced by adults who promote imposing the procedures on children.
     
• Texas Scorecard has chronicled the legislative saga of the issue as well as officials’ subsequent blame game, which involved Gov. Abbott passing the political hot potato to A.G. Paxton and other state agencies.
   
• (Paxton all-but previewed this opinion in his conversation with Brandon Waltens several weeks ago.)

End Tenure For CRT Profs

• After the University of Texas at Austin’s faculty Senate passed a pro-critical race theory resolution, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is demanding an end to tenure for all new hires. Sydnie Henry has the story.
   
• Under the “tenure” system, professors cannot be fired until their name is reviewed, which occurs every six years. Patrick proposes ending the tenure system for new hires and altering the conditions for existing tenured professors by adding a clause that would revoke tenure from professors who adhere to CRT, which Patrick defines as teaching “that we are inherently racist as a nation.”
     
• “We’re not gonna pay for this [indoctrination],” said Patrick.
   
• Patrick said his proposal already has the support of State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), who chairs the Senate’s Higher Education Committee.

GOP Candidate For Governor ‘Sent To Facebook Jail’

• With just a week left before the Republican primary, the social media giant Facebook has silenced the account of gubernatorial candidate and media personality Chad Prather.
      
• According to Facebook, Prather violated community standards on harassment and bullying when he responded to a woman trolling his account and essentially told her to do more research and spare him the “victimhood.”
     
• Prather told Texas Scorecard that this decision by Facebook “is clear election interference on the part of Big Tech. Whether you agree with me, think I’m abrasive in my style, or politically incorrect, I have not violated any supposed community guidelines. We have got to fight for our rights to speak freely.”

House Speaker Touts Teacher Union Endorsement

• Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) is touting the endorsement of a left-leaning state group “affiliated with the National Education Association.” Erin Anderson has the details.
   
• The NEA-affiliated Texas State Teachers’ Association backs Democrats over Republicans by a 3-1 margin. TSTA has endorsed 107 candidates for 2022: 79 Democrats and 28 Republicans. The group has exclusively endorsed Democrats for congressional and state Senate seats.
     
• Despite heavily promoting the endorsement himself, Phelan is running unopposed in both the primary and general elections. 

Republican SLAMS His GOP Colleagues For DEM Chairs

• State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) has put his Republican colleagues on notice: when the legislature next convenes he will again push changes to the House rules prohibiting Democrats from chairing committees in the GOP-dominated chamber. Katy Drollinger has a write up of the interview Slaton gave Brandon Waltens on The Headline.
      
• When Slaton pushed the issue as a freshman lawmaker in 2021, he said it was Republican lawmakers who were the most upset. “The Democrats didn’t say a word to me.”
     
• “If you are concerned with the state of our nation and the direction we are going, how are we going to stop it? How are we going to turn it around? How are we going to advance our agenda as long as we give Democrats more power than they earn on Election Day? And I just feel like we’re setting ourselves up to lose, almost like we’re tying one arm behind our backs and then wondering why we can’t beat [them] in the boxing match.” – Bryan Slaton

Abolish Abortion’s Election Guide

• The activist group Abolish Abortion has released their 2022 election guide, 

  consisting of candidates who pledged to end abortion in Texas. Sydnie Henry reports the organization lists 73 candidates in the guide, covering federal, statewide, and state races.

Weaponizing ‘Censure’ Resolutions

• New evidence shows Round Rock ISD trustees tried to weaponize ‘censure’ resolutions as a way to silence dissenting board members. Jacob Asmussen has the details from the ongoing scandal gripping the “safe” and “conservative” suburban central Texas school district.
   
• You think this isn’t happening in your school district? Are you sure?

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Lt. Gov. Patrick announced late last week that, when the Texas Legislature convenes in 2023, he will champion legislation ending “tenure” – the practice which makes professors mostly immune from being fired – for new hires at public universities and colleges. This announcement came on the heels of UT professors publicly promoting Critical Race Theory.

Should professors at taxpayer-funded colleges and universities who promote CRT be subject to termination, regardless of tenure?

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!