Good morning,

While a Supreme Court justice and the entire woke mob cannot define what a woman is, members of the Texas House and Senate are proposing to do just that.

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, March 16, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

State Agency Takes Over Houston ISD

• It has finally happened. The Texas Education Agency announced yesterday that it is taking over the state’s largest school district, Houston ISD. Darrell Frost has the full story.
      

• The takeover was first ordered by Education Commissioner Mike Morath back in 2019, after a high school in Houston’s Fifth Ward received a failing grade on the state’s evaluation of schools for seven consecutive years and an investigation uncovered evidence of malfeasance among the board of trustees and district staff. That malfeasance resulted in a federal investigation, indictments, and convictions of a Houston ISD board member, district staff, and vendors.
      

• After Morath announced his takeover order, a lawsuit was brought against the TEA by Houston teachers and board members to stop it. A Democrat judge in Austin granted them an injunction, which has allowed the school district to continue to be mismanaged until now. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Texas lifted that injunction, paving the way for the TEA to step in.
       

• According to Commissioner Morath, in these intervening years since his original order, the high school at the center of the original dispute has improved – though not by much – while others have gotten worse. At the same time, Morath does say Houston ISD has some well-performing schools, but systemic problems in the massive bureaucracy still require this temporary action.
       

• Based on other times the TEA has taken such an action, the state's management of a school district usually lasts between two and six years.
      

• The takeover is welcome news to State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), a longtime critic of HISD's operations. As a member of the Senate Education Committee, Bettencourt said he has been "concerned" about "nefarious trustees' activity. "

Biden Pushes Red-Flag Laws

• U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday calling for additional gun control measures and stronger implementation of last year’s “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.” As Sydnie Henry reports, that legislation included enhanced gun background checks for individuals under 21 years old and funding for red-flag laws.
       
• Biden’s executive order touts the federal gun control measures passed last year, for which U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was the lead negotiator. Back home in Texas, Cornyn came under fire for joining Democrat lawmakers in their infringement on Second Amendment rights.
      
• "Gun grabbers can celebrate Joe Biden's speech all they want. We're not giving them up." – Texas Gun Rights

Report: Senate Property Tax Plan ‘Falls Short’

• While both chambers of the Texas Legislature are touting plans for the “biggest property tax cut in history,” a new analysis from the Huffines Liberty Foundation says the Senate’s plan “falls short.” Brandon Waltens reports on the study's findings.

       

• Co-authored by former State Sen. Don Huffines and policy analyst Bill Peacock, their review finds the package of property tax legislation to be lacking. In their estimation, the Senate's proposal “only treats the symptoms of our broken property tax system while failing to address the underlying disease: incessant growth in local government and school district spending.”

       

• The group has criticized the package for not dedicating enough of the state’s $32.7 billion surplus towards tax relief. While the Senate has presented their plan as providing $16.5 billion in relief, much of that number is from existing property tax relief passed in previous sessions, leading to only $9.7 billion in new relief.

        
• “To put it bluntly, property taxes are immoral. Any policy that keeps Texans from owning their own home, while at the same time forcing renters and businesses to carry a burden from which they get no relief, should not pass,” said Huffines.

Transparency in Texas Becoming an Endangered Species

• Government agencies in Texas – from major state agencies to small towns and school districts – are waging a quiet war against transparency. Robert Montoya examines the growing problem.
       
• “The Texas transparency environment is less than what it should be,” said James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. This was not always Texas’ story. Quintero said that 50 years ago, Texas was known for having “the strongest transparency laws in the nation.”

Senate Confirms Nelson As SoS

• Gov. Greg Abbott has finally found a secretary of state who passes Senate confirmation! Former State Sen. Jane Nelson was unanimously confirmed as Texas' secretary of state. As Brandon Waltens notes, she is the first person to be appointed to that position since 2017 who has been confirmed by the Senate.
       
• “I will work to safeguard honest and accurate elections in all 254 counties across our great state, while continuing to support business owners by ensuring that government moves at the speed of Texas business, not the other way around,” said Nelson, who was first elected to the Senate from Denton County in 1992 before announcing her retirement in 2021.

House Speaker Targets 'Rogue' Prosecutors

• As some Texas district and county attorneys refuse to prosecute certain crimes, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announced this week he will prioritize legislation to remove those who pick and choose which crimes to punish. Soli Rice has the details.

       
• Legislation proposed by State Rep. David Cook (R-Mansfield) would require the enforcement of criminal laws by prohibiting prosecutors—both district and county attorneys alike—from adopting policies preventing the enforcement of certain laws.
       

• Last summer, five Texas DAs—those in Travis County, Dallas County, Bear County, Nueces County, and Fort Bend County—announced their refusal to prosecute illegal abortions.
        

• Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi has described Cook's measure as "one of the most important bills this session."

Texas Lawmakers Answer the Question ‘What Is a Woman?’

• As the radical left wrestles with the meanings of basic terms such as “woman,” “man,” “male,” and “female,” three Texas lawmakers have filed legislation to define those terms in state law. Darrell Frost reports on their efforts.
      

• In each bill, a female is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,” while a male is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.”
      
• The bills authored in the House by Republican Reps. Ellen Troxclair (Spicewood) and Brian Harrison (Midlothian) equate the terms “male” and “female” with “man” and “woman,” and further define “boy,” “girl,” “father,” and “mother.” They also define “sex” as “a person’s biological sex, either male or female.” In the Senate, Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) has filed SB 1082 using the same definitions.
      
• If you had told me in the 1990s that in the 2020s educated people couldn't define "woman" or "man," I'd have laughed...

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