Good morning,

Y’all have definite thoughts on the trustworthiness of the Federal Bureau of Investigation…

Meanwhile, the Texas Education Agency hopes you won’t notice they’ve decided to stop listing failing public schools as… failing.

Here is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, August 17, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

• But first… I don’t pay much attention to the elections in Not-Texas unless there is a specific tie or hook into Texas policy.
      
• Yet, to our fellow patriots in Wyoming I offer my sincerest thanks for ridding Congress of Liz Cheney. She was an embarrassment to the American people. We appreciate y’all removing her from office.

Border Nightmare Worsens

• With the Border Patrol well on its way to logging a record-breaking 2 million encounters with illegal border crossers before the end of the federal fiscal year in October, the situation has become dire for everyone involved – and especially children. Sydnie Henry has the report.
     
• The cartel-led human smuggling operations are wreaking havoc on the lives of minors entrusted to a coyote’s care. Journalist Savanah Hernandez interviewed a guardsman who described finding a “3-year-old little girl with her 7-month-old brother” left alongside the Rio Grande border.
     
• An often unreported aspect to the ongoing human smuggling crisis is the rampant rape and sexual assault on women and children. The same guardsman reported meeting an 11-year-old Cuban girl sent by her mother with coyotes and a “big box” of condoms for protection. “Pretty much, the coyotes did what they wanted with her.”
      
• “We know that this is happening on Texas soil,” said Sheena Rodriguez, president of Alliance for a Safe Texas. “We know that these children are being exploited. We know that they’re being trafficked across the great state of Texas and they’re being dispersed right here, throughout Texas and beyond. Why is Texas not doing more? Why are Texas state officials not doing more to say we’re not going to allow this to happen any longer here in the state of Texas?”

Fentanyl Seizures At Border Up 203% In July

• More than 20,000 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated on the southern border in July alone—enough to kill every Texan roughly 150 times over.
     
• Notably, fentanyl overdoses have become the leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 18-45.
      
• Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy blames the Biden administration’s open border policies for the ongoing crisis and increasingly dangerous cartel activity.

Programming Note: Lake On The Headline

• On this week’s special edition of The Headline (Friday at 12 noon), Brandon Waltens will have an exclusive interview with Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for governor in Arizona.
     
• Lake has pledged that her first action as governor, should she be elected, will be to declare an invasion at her state’s southern border.

Failing Schools Now To Be Listed As ‘Not Rated’

• So that no Texas parent has to suffer the indignity of knowing just how bad their public schools are, the Texas Education Agency is no longer going to show schools as failing… instead, they will be “not rated.”
     

• As Erin Anderson reports, failure is literally not an option this year for Texas school districts and campuses.

       
• The TEA’s new rating includes grades of A to C, while schools that score below a C are assigned a label of “Not Rated: Senate Bill 1365.”
      
• According to the TEA, the revised rating system aligns with Senate Bill 1365, passed last year, which authorizes use of the “Not Rated” label if the education commissioner determines it would be “inappropriate” to assign an A-F rating because circumstances make performance indicators “difficult to measure or evaluate and would not accurately reflect quality of learning and achievement for the district or campus.”
      
• Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath decided to assign the label to all schools statewide that made failing grades.
      
• There is a big difference between “authorizes” and “requires.” The commissioner, who is appointed by – and serves at the pleasure of – Gov. Greg Abbott, made the call.
      
• Reminder: Texas school ratings were skipped in 2020 and 2021, due to COVID policies that kept kids out of classrooms and resulted in devastating learning losses.
     
• And so, with this in mind, what a surprise to learn…

Poll: Democrats and Republicans Want School Choice

• A new poll by the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler finds 69 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of Independents, and 59 percent of Democrats said they support school choice. Emily Wilkerson has the details.
     
• “It’s time for Texas to fund students, not systems. After all, education funding is supposed to be meant for educating children, not for propping up and protecting a particular institution,” said Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow for the American Federation for Children. “The funding belongs to the student, not the institution.”

GOP Voters ‘More Conservative Than Ever’

• In the latest edition of his show, Luke Macias digs into polling numbers to show Texas’ Republican electorate is tracking more conservative than before… and what that means for politicians.
   
• You can find The Luke Macias Show on our website as well as your favorite podcasting platforms, such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

Peacock: Christians Under Attack… In America

• “Christians’ ability to speak and live out the Word of God is under assault from the secular left,” writes Bill Peacock in a new commentary. “They seek to remove any trace of God or His people from the culture.”

At Your Service!

• If you’d like to schedule me or one of the other Texas Scorecard team members to speak at an event or function, use this form on our website.

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Y’All Answered

Over the last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has seen its reputation under fire following the raid of President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago. We asked Texas Minute readers if they trust the agency. 

We found 98.3 percent of readers distrust the FBI, compared to 1.7 percent who trust the agency.

Here’s a sample of the responses I received in the inbox…

• “I used to trust the FBI. Which begs the question: Where do ‘We The People’ turn when the very people we depend on to enforce our laws don’t or use those laws against us? Feeling kind of lost in my own country.” – Rick Goncher
      
• “No, no, no. How can you trust an agency who can kick open the door of any private citizen it wants to, with guns drawn, let alone a former legitimate president of the United States of America? It is one of the most corrupt agencies and has to be stopped!” – Debbie Lawson
      
• “Just the FBI? Why would we trust any of the federal “alphabet” agencies? Each one grows larger each year in an effort to restrict liberties, rather than promote them.” – Zack Dunnam
      
• “The FBI is not to be trusted. We realized this upfront with Hillary Clinton; she should have been indicted.” – Donna de Socarraz
      
• “The FBI is corrupt.  Christopher Wray was part of the entire Enron debacle along with Andrew Weissmann and others years ago, where evidence was withheld and innocent people were sent to prison.” – Lisa Buck
      
• “I believe the rank and file in the FBI still deserve our trust.  Much like other government organizations, it's the leadership at the top that is corrupt.” – Robert Gardner
      
• “I now trust the FBI about as much as I trust that a rattlesnake isn’t going to bite me.” – Steve Abernathy
     
• “Abolish the FBI, CIA, IRS, and much of the alphabet soup that our federal govt. has become… we are now beyond a tipping point.” – Michele Ward

      

• “My mistrust of the FBI spans at least three decades of their misdeeds, abuse of power, and cover-ups and lies.” – Sonia Rivero
      

• “I absolutely do not trust the FBI. Although, I really appreciate those whistleblowers in the FBI that have come forward, there are far too many that either remain silent, or else they are complicit in what is going on.” – Ken Hodges
      
• “I do completely trust that the bureau will continue to operate as a corrupt, renegade, power drunk, unprincipled, and dangerous group of criminals. These are bad times for our country.” – Vikie Schwartz
      
• “More correctly:  I don't trust the leadership of the FBI.  They obviously are in league with the elitists that think they are above the law.” – Rex Reeve
      
• “If they were able to raid President Trump's home and confiscate his passports, they could do that to any of us! Really, though, I don't trust our government or any other government agency, including the newly doubled IRS. Sadly, our government and agencies have given us very little reason to trust them.” – Cathy Blake
      
• “Sad to say, but I do not trust one of the 35,000 FBI employees. You must reach a point as an American where you have to stand up, even to your employer. They should be run out of Texas as the terrorist organization they have become. G-men for Gestapo.” – John Erwin
    
• “This latest atrocity by the FBI barely scratches the surface.” – Roger Taylor
      
• “The FBI is just one of many. My biggest concern right now is how the fraud in our voting system can be eliminated before we no longer have a say on anything.” – Dodi Lilja
      
• “It is very sad to say the FBI has become a political tool and not an instrument of justice.” – Jerry Harben
     
• “I think rank and file do their jobs and do them well. However, ‘upper management’ needs a house cleaning.  Even ‘Trump-appointed’ Chris Wray is corrupt. I don’t think Trump will make that mistake again (and there will be an ‘again’!!).” – Steve Sullivan

      

• “While it may be one of the worst, the FBI is just one of the many federal agencies that needs to be abolished.” – Spencer Siino
     

• “I think there are a large number of federal agents in the field who are dedicated, honest, and have integrity. Unfortunately, I think the whole leadership of the FBI in Washington is corrupt and rotten to the core.” – Gary Johnson
      

• “Sadly, the FBI has earned the distrust of Americans. They need to be totally dismantled and the DOJ needs thorough investigation.” – Mary Matthews
      

• “Nor the DOJ, nor the CIA, nor anyone at any upper level in the federal government!” – Jack Boteler
       

• “The FBI has repeatedly shown it cannot be trusted to observe law or truth. It should be completely defunded. I would like to give a pass to the field agents who have not been corrupted, but to continue to work for this patently unconstitutional agency violates the oath of office.” – Scott Jones
      
• “I don’t trust anyone or any department in the entire Jobama Regime.” – Charles Reagan 
    
• “The USA is no longer a republic, much less a democracy.  It is a bureaucracy.  And blaming the Biden, or any, administration is just a distraction; the bureaucracy runs the administration, not the other way around.” – James Stith
     
• “At this point, Texas (and other states) should take action to prevent the FBI from operating as a law enforcement agency within our state borders… including arresting FBI agents for impersonating law enforcement, if necessary.” – Jason Kerr
      
• “The FBI was politicized by the Obama administration and utilized as a tool to deal with political opposition. It can no longer be trusted to equally uphold the law.” – Owen Schierenbeck
     
• “The FBI has been a political espionage agency since the days of J. Edgar Hoover.” – John Bolgiano
     
• “The FBI has shown that it can no longer be trusted not only by their recent actions, but by their recent history of inactions!” – Reid Davidson
      
• “What a sad place America has arrived at, that we cannot trust the FBI.  God, please help us.” – Tim Rhodes

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.