This session’s effort to make state government more transparent and ethical — spearheaded by some of the Legislature’s most conservative members and its most liberal ones — has attracted the strangest of bedfellows.
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When the House takes up its first major education policy bill on the floor Tuesday, it could provide an indication of where the battle lines are drawn on an increasingly contentious division within the business community.
Full StoryFor this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about term limits for statewide officials, for legislators and members of Congress, and whether officeholders should receive lifetime pensions for 10-12 years of service.
Full StoryThis week in the Newsreel: The flap between University of Texas regents and UT-Austin President Bill Powers rages on, Attorney General Greg Abbott calls for pre-trial DNA testing for capital cases and legislators are talking of arming teachers in public schools.
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Committee hearings for the coming week.
Full StoryGetting rid of standardized tests in public education would make it impossible to find out whether students have mastered the basics or acquired the skills necessary for success. Tests are the best way to measure results for students.
Full StoryTexas outspends every state in the nation on testing and leads in the number of tests it requires students to pass to graduate from high school. But that has not translated to a lead in students' education performance.
Full StoryIn their efforts to prevent a micromanaging crisis at the University of Texas at Austin by the UT System's regents, lawmakers will instead prevent regents from managing a crisis in higher education.
Full StorySome regents at the University of Texas System are ignoring their constitutional duty to provide support and direction for a "university of the first class." And if they keep it up, they could ruin their flagship school.
Full StoryThe Texas Senate approved a $195.5 billion budget Wednesday that even supporters called an intermediate step toward a final spending plan for the next two years. The $193.8 billion budget approved by the House Appropriations Committee Thursday includes an extra $2.5 billion for public education. The bill is smaller than the Senate budget by about $1.7 billion.
Longtime employees of the University of Texas System could not recall a split vote on the board of regents, which has traditionally settled differences behind closed doors and presented a unified front. That changed on Wednesday, when the board voted to review relations between UT-Austin and the UT Law School Foundation.
Wichita Falls is the largest city in Texas in danger of running out of water. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the city of more than 100,000 could run out of water in less than six months.
Legislation that could lead to term limits on statewide officeholders made its way through the Senate this week; if approved by the House and then by voters, it would limit non-judicial statewide officeholders to two four-year terms.
As recently as 2003, the president of the Greater Fort Bend County Tea Party had a different title: director of propaganda for the American Fascist Party. James Ives says he was working undercover doing research for a book he never wrote.
Add Tom Pauken to the list of Men Who Would Be Governor. The former Texas Workforce commissioner and Republican Party chairman filed papers this week for a 2014 run. He’s not running against Rick Perry, exactly, but he’s not exactly not. He told The Texas Tribune he wants to reunite the “Reagan coalition of social and economic conservatives.” He told the Dallas Morning News, which broke the story, that it's time for "a different style of leadership." He said he likes Perry and likes Attorney General Greg Abbott, most often mentioned as next in the line of succession in the GOP.
Put Barry Smitherman on the maybe list for the 2014 race for attorney general. He is currently chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, a post to which he was elected in November, and hasn’t made a public peep about anything else. But fellow Republicans — non-officeholders, by the way — say he is talking about a shot at AG. He says, in response, that he’s planning to run for reelection to the RRC.
Democratic activist Celia Israel says she has filed the paperwork to run for Rep. Mark Strama’s spot in HD-50 in 2014. The Austin Democrat announced early in the session that this will be his last term; Israel says she’s got 300 supporters and a website.
Press corps moves: Brad Watson leaves Dallas’ WFAA-TV after more than three decades (!) to become a spokesman for Luminent.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed:
• Tony Buzbee of Friendswood, Morris Foster of Austin and Charles Schwartz of Houston to the Texas A&M System Board of Regents. Buzbee is a trial lawyer. Foster is retired president of ExxonMobil Production Co. Schwartz is a partner with the Skadden Arps law firm.
• John Clamp of San Antonio to preside over the board of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority. Clamp runs the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association.
• Leslie Bingham and Lowell Keig to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for new terms. Bingham is CEO of Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville. Keig is an Austin attorney.
