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 […]
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Proposed Texas House Resolution on Birth Control Sends a Message on Women’s Health Care
On Wednesday the Texas House Select Committee on Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility will consider a resolution condemning the federal requirement that most employers include coverage for contraception in health insurance for their employees. HCR 32, by state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, lacks the force of law, but its passage would send an alarming message that says […]
Sharia Law in Texas: 'There Is No Problem Here'
A rare moment of rational debate broke out in the Texas Senate last week in the most unlikely of places — a committee hearing on a proposal to ban Texas courts from imposing “foreign law” (code for Sharia law) on citizens. Hearings on this contentious subject in previous years have been marked by open bigotry and […]
TFN's Kathy Miller: Politics Trump Common Sense in the Far Right's Manufactured CSCOPE 'Controversy'
Today the Austin American-Statesman published a column from Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller about the far right’s hyperbolic attacks on the curriculum management system called CSCOPE. We wanted to post it here for TFN Insider readers. When Politics Trump Common Sense Too often politics get in the way of common sense. That’s the case […]
From the Annals of Chutzpah: State Rep. Debbie Riddle Plays the Role of Champion for 'Poor Families of Texas'
State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, made herself sound like a champion for the poor during Thursday’s debate in the Texas House over a measure barring public funds for private school vouchers. (The measure passed overwhelmingly.) She wanted to know why opponents of private school vouchers weren’t considering “the poor families of Texas” who can’t afford […]