Once again, politics trumps education in Texas. State Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee, sounded downright gleeful today in making a surprise announcement that the state’s Education Service Centers will no longer provide lessons in their CSCOPE curriculum management system. “The era of CSCOPE lesson plans has come to […]
Dan Patrick
Texas Sen. Wendy Davis Schools Senate Ed Committee Chair on Voucher Bill
For months state Sen. Dan Patrick — the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee — has insisted that the Legislature should divert millions of dollars from public education to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools. Sen. Patrick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst even held a press conference at a parochial school in […]
Not with a Bang, But with a Whimper
The wait is finally over. After months of promises and grandstanding, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, with only hours remaining before the bill-filing deadline, finally fulfilled his pledge to file a school voucher bill. If you’ve been listening to Sen. Patrick since last August, you would think that this moment would be met with fanfare and […]
Sen. Patrick Gives Texans an Odd Lesson on Civil Rights
Did you know that students attending private schools in Texas today face discrimination like African-American students did during the era of racial segregation? Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee, seems to think so. Sen. Patrick was speaking at Tuesday’s Education Committee hearing on Senate Bill 573, a measure that […]
Distortions and Bullying Tactics Take Center Stage at Texas Senate Hearing on Sex Education
Today we saw a big reason why sex education is so awful in Texas, a state with one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation. Polling shows that 84 percent of registered voters in Texas want high school sex education classes to teach about birth control along with the importance of abstinence. But […]

