The Texas legislature is approaching its final days of the session. The last day is May 29. As deadlines have passed bills have died and frustrations are mounting. Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez—a Democrat who represents district 19 that includes Uvalde— says it appears like little will be done to pass gun safety laws, create legal exceptions for the Texas total abortion ban and make the grid more reliable. It’s been reported he intends to join the U.S. Senate race to challenge Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Vouchers are history.
The push for a school-voucher like program in Texas has had a lot of momentum this legislative session. Republican leaders may see their long-held wish for a private school choice option succeed at last.
The idea of using public funds for private school tuition has been around since at least the 1950s. The most well-known origin is that it was the brainchild of Milton Friedman, an economist who championed free markets and the deregulation of the banking and finance industry. Many of his ideas have been debunked.
But many states' first voucher programs were actually designed to circumvent desegregation. TPR Education Reporter Camille Phillips tells us Texas almost joined them.
Woke history
There have been many fights over how Texas history should be taught in the classroom, but now the battle is deciding on what is actual Texas history.
Were the heroes of the myth of Texas independence really heroic?
Did Texas break away from Mexico over slavery, just like it did from the United States in the Civil War?
There are competing ideological narratives and they have become the faultline in the Texas State Historical Association, the independent non-profit publisher of research material and education programs about the Lone Star State.
Founded in 1897, the Texas State Historical Association produces the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, the Texas Almanac, the Handbook of Texas and other material frequently cited as the last word— or at least a substantial, fact-based and unbiased authority on Texas history.
What happens when the Texas State Historical Association deals in the facts of Texas and not so much the myth? It is accused of becoming woke.
Rob D’Amico wrote about it for Texas Monthly.
His article is “Traditionalists Protest What Some Consider a “Woke” Takeover of the Texas State Historical Association”
