Good morning!

In yesterday’s One Click Survey, we asked readers the same exact question – with the same set of response choices – that was put to more than 25,000 of Texas’ public school teachers. You’ll see how the responses compare.

This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

UPDATE: China’s Infiltration 

• Earlier this fall, Texas Scorecard’s EXPOSED podcast series demonstrated how the Chinese Communist Party has been infiltrating Texas – and the rest of the nation – for the last two decades… and often with the assistance of public officials. Of particular note was the episode on drone company DJI’s attempts to flood the Texas market.
      
• A new investigation reported by Politico shows U.S. senators have been warned about hundreds of DJI drone intrusions over the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Pentagon – pointing to increased espionage efforts by Beijing. 
    
• If you missed it, catch up on the full EXPOSED season and accompanying investigative materials. Or, you can find it on your favorite podcasting platform.

GOP House Speaker Phelan Downplays Potential For Property Tax Relief Promised by Gov. Abbott

• With the state expected to have a $27 billion surplus when lawmakers gather in January for the next legislative session, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is tempering expectations that the money will be used for property tax relief. This puts Phelan and his supporters on a collision course with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have promised to use “at least half” of the surplus to cut property taxes in the Lone Star State.
     
• Brandon Waltens has the full story. At a recent meeting of the Transportation Advocacy Group in Houston, Phelan indicated that his plans for the surplus may not include substantial property tax relief.
     
• “I know there’s a lot of politicians who are going around saying we need to go around spending half this revenue [on property tax relief],” Phelan told attendees. 
     
• Among the “politicians” who are – apparently so inadvisedly – “going around” and “spending half this revenue” (notice, he doesn’t call it what it is: a surplus) are Gov. Abbott and GOP House members like Rep. Tom Oliverson and Rep.-elect Ellen Troxclair.
      
• Phelan hinted that the money would instead go to infrastructure and growing government, saying, “No one is even considering how much more expensive it’s going to be to run government next cycle.”
     
• What, does Dade think running a home and business is getting cheaper for everyone? House Republicans voting to keep Phelan as speaker might have some explaining to do…

Will Texas Finish Trump’s Border Wall?

• State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) has filed legislation to finish President Trump’s border wall. Sydnie Henry reports the measure would “empower the Texas Department of Public Safety to use the Border Security Enhancement Fund to construct a wall along the border while meeting minimum federal specifications.”
      
• “Texas is under an invasion, and we need this border wall now more than ever,” said Slaton. “The human trafficking, crime, and illegal drugs that the cartels are bringing over our borders have reached unprecedented levels. Over 100,000 people died from illegal drugs last year alone. This is truly a crisis. While the whole nation is affected by the situation on our border, Texans are suffering the most. We must act.”
     
• This is the second time Slaton has filed a bill to finish the border wall. His previous effort in 2021 was never given a committee hearing.
      
• So far, 40 Texas counties are known to have declared an invasion on the Texas-Mexico border and urged Abbott to take further action in repelling the ongoing invasion. Those counties include: Kinney, Goliad, Terrell, Parker, Wise, Edwards, Atascosa, Presidio, Tyler, Live Oak, Rockwall, Johnson, Wilson, Hardin, Chambers, Ellis, Orange, Liberty, Throckmorton, Madison, Jasper, Van Zandt, Wichita, Clay, Jack, Hunt, Montague, Hood, Wharton, Burnet, Collin, McMullen, Hamilton, Lavaca, Ector, Leon, Navarro, Waller, Fannin, and Shackelford.

Texas City Snubs Local Churches to Accommodate New LGBTQ Group

• Because the organizers of Taylor’s annual Christmas parade want to promote Christian values, the Central Texas city council will not be a sponsor this year. In an effort to appease local homosexual activists, city tax dollars will be used instead to support an LGBTQ-focused parade… on the same day. Darrell Frost has the story.

Obamacare for the Press?

• Democrat U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN) is attempting to move the so-called “Journalism Competition Protection Act” during the lame-duck session. As Adam Cahn reports, the measure allows local media outlets to negotiate bulk discount advertising rates with Big Tech publishers like Facebook or Twitter.
     
• Utah Senator Mike Lee disagrees with Klobuchar’s assertion and characterizes it as “Obamacare for the press.”
   
• “Censorship is becoming more and more blatant on the internet. Big Tech is more and more naked in silencing the voices with which they disagree. This bill, if it is enacted, would create an exemption from the antitrust laws to allow Big Tech to sit down with an enormous conglomerate of media operations and negotiate free from the antitrust laws.” – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz
     
• “Nothing good comes from lame-duck congressional sessions; they’re a frequent repository for bad legislation,” explains Cahn of the push for Klobuchar’s measure. “From the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to Obamacare in 2009, examples of badly thought-out legislation passing in December are too numerous to list.”

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Y’All Answered

In the One Click Survey, readers were asked which of six choices most closely described how they thought Texas lawmakers should approach education policy. We used the same language in a survey of more than 25,000 Texas classroom teachers. 

The options included purposefully “extreme” positions in both directions:

• Ban Home / Private Schools
• Regulate Home / Private Schools
• More Tax Money Into Government Schools
• Allow Tax Dollars To ‘Fund Students, Not Systems’
• Expand Charter Schools
• Abolish Public Education As It Exists Today

How They Responded…

On the Republican primary ballot earlier this year, 87 percent of voters agreed with a ballot position that: “Texas parents and guardians should have the right to select schools, whether public or private, for their children, and the funding should follow the student.”

In raw numbers, there were 1,954,172 ballots cast in the gubernatorial race – with 1.3 million going to incumbent Greg Abbott. On the “school choice” question, 1,901,862 Republicans cast votes – with 1.7 million in support of the language quoted above.

Put differently: Having education funding “follow the student” between public and private schools outperformed Gov. Abbott in the Republican primary.

Here is a sampling of the responses I received from Texas Minute readers…

• “I chose to abolish public education as it exists - as a public school teacher.  The system as it currently exists cannot be changed; it has to be rooted up and recreated.  It is currently running amok. Students are taught early they do not have to work hard to pass. This is negatively affecting society and the idea of American innovation and technical advancements. We are devolving as a society driven by the lack of character, ethics, and hard work being taught in public education. We are creating a class of idiots.” - Greg Reinhart
     

• “The reason I took early retirement after 33 years is because Bill Ayers took over the education system in the U.S. in order to destroy our country and turn it into a State-Run Communist Education System like we have today.” – Eleanor Edmondson
     

• “I believe in letting the money follow the student and not go to the bureaucratic school systems. This, in turn, will promote charter and private schools, whereas if you just start expanding Charter/Private schools, the hardworking, struggling parents would have to pay tuition as well as the outrageous ISD school taxes!” – Greg Burr
     

• “Our public education system has devolved into the biggest failure of the American Experiment.” – Michael Bow
     

• “I do not want tax money to pay for charter or private schools. If you want your child to go to private or charter schools, then you pay the way! No taxpayer dollars. School taxes and property taxes should be stopped for all people 65 years of age or older. Also, if you send your child to a private or charter school, then you should be exempt from paying school taxes!” – John Patterson
     

• “Are we spending our tax dollars to educate our children or to fund indoctrinators and their union who want parents labeled as domestic terrorists? Fund the children NOT the system!” – Tara Souther
     

• “There is nothing that says the ‘public free schools’ is the only funding or system that is allowed. Obviously, the current system is not working for anyone other than the ‘school system.’” – Steve Sullivan
     

• “Public education should focus on reading, writing, arithmetic, add in thinking and reasoning skills; and stick to the truth in history rather than the rewritten versions being promulgated now.” – Gay Armstrong
     

• “I know I'll be one of the few that vote to abolish public schools, but right now, it's like the Titanic barreling towards the iceberg! There's no turning it around.” – Don Hu
     

• “What should policymakers’ focus be on when it comes to education? Respect. We are educating the future of this country. Treat the profession like the future depends on it.” – Raea Davenport
     

• “The public school system, as it exists today, was devised and implemented in socialism. Socialism fails every time it is tried. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the public school system is failing. Further, it is foolish to think we can force our children into years (well into young adulthood) of training in socialism and then expect them to embrace capitalism.” - Roger Taylor
     

• “I chose to allow tax dollars to follow students, but I also wanted to choose abolishing the public school system as it exists today. Like a number of other institutions today, I’m not sure it really can be saved. Maybe it can be if concerned parents continue running for and taking control of school boards. I’m hoping to see more of that.” – Vicki Schwartz
     

• “Like many government programs, public education is generally broken beyond repair. The multiple levels of bureaucracy, localized political dynasties, and discouragement of parental involvement in their children's education have all resulted in a system that provides only a shadow of the education children routinely received 150 years ago and with less time and money commitment.” – Kevin Wade
     

• “Public schools now do more to indoctrinate than educate. Literacy levels have never been as high as they were during the days of the one-room schoolhouse. Children are not learning the fear of the Lord; they graduate barely literate in reading and math and are told what to think.” – Cathy Blake
     

• “Let’s improve public schools, not abolish them.” – Kathryn Martin 
     

• “School districts spend too much money on ‘systems.’ I’m a retired teacher and many times I’ve had to buy my own copy paper and other classroom basics that the district should provide. Fund the things that benefit the teachers and students.” – Dawn Gerstenberger
     

• “The best gauge of a child's success in education is a concerned and attentive parent. Providing that parent with the tools to furnish his child with the best education available is the most logical way to increase the quality of education. If we could allow the parent to compensate the teacher directly for a job well done, it would be the most efficient way of ensuring that the education system benefits both the student and the teacher for the quality desired.” – Arthur Potter
     

• “Let the vast amount of cash paid by taxpayers follow the student to whatever education avenue his/her parents choose. Perhaps some competition in the education system will produce better results.” – Charles Busbey
     

• “The goal for all students should be the same: learning of standards agreed upon by a group of parents, educators and professionals while keeping students safe. Parents need to be parents and let educators be educators.” – Nancy Lingle Bassham
     

• “From what I’ve seen in every of the 10 school districts I’ve lived in since the early ‘80s is that most of their money is spent more on land acquisition than the education of our kids.  What we seem to be funding is real estate investments and high-priced administrators and boards.” – Rick Goncher
     

• “I was tempted to select the old canard of ‘allow tax dollars to fund students, not systems,’ but the more I thought about it, the system itself is broken. With its complete overtake by various education departments within the state, local and federal governments as well as the teachers unions, it’s unsalvageable. I don’t know what the replacement should be, but the current one is completely corrupt to the core.” – Jeff Lanham
    

• “I selected ‘fund students’ not programs, but with the overwhelming majority of woke folk running our schools, the parents will be hard pressed to find a school that actually teaches and doesn’t indoctrinate.” – Garry Ludwig 
     

• “Few high school graduates today can read anything beyond a 5th grade level or write in complete sentences. They have limited basic math skills. Therefore, today’s education system provides little to no service to the children. It’s an expensive daycare operation.” – Jane Kappes
     

• “While expanding charter schools is closest to the best answer, that is not the solution. The solution is to cut spending on education and encourage private donors to give for private school scholarships.” – Jim Baxa
     

• “Even though the amount of tax money going into education continues to increase, the quality of the product is on a downward slope. I prefer to have my tax dollars follow the student, where I might get a better return on my investment.” – Alan Smith
     

• “We are paying to educate our children, not support teachers and administrative staff. If funding follows the students, then teachers and administrative staff will have an incentive to do well. When we simply pay for teachers and staff, where is the incentive to do better?” – Ken Hodges

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.