Instead of attending family barbecues or local parades, Texas state representatives spent Memorial Day on the floor of the House scrambling their way through a long list of controversial priority bills like Senate Bill 13, which would further empower parents and school boards to review school libraries’ books for “indecent or profane” content. After about two hours of debate on that measure, Representative Gene Wu, the Democratic Caucus chair, felt like he was “taking crazy pills,” he said.
“I think the vast majority of Texans would watch us during this debate and go, ‘What is going on there?’” Wu said “There’s thousands of other problems in our world right now that need addressing.”
The Texas House spent the long holiday weekend—which came ahead of the final Tuesday deadline for passage of Senate bills—taking up several bills on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s priority agenda. Many of which, including SB 13, were part of the Texas GOP’s larger crusade to impose cultural conservatism on all facets of public education. Among the legislation passed by the Republican majority were a bill to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in K-12 schools, to require every Texas public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments, and to increase political control over the programming and curriculum of public universities.
In addition to removing “harmful” library material, SB 13 would allow parents to access student library records and prevent their children from checking out certain books, and allow for districts to establish parental library advisory councils. GOP state Representative Brad Buckley, who carried SB 13 in the House, said it would “ensure that school library collections are appropriate for their campuses based upon developmental suitability for those grade levels and on community values.” The bill was approved in the House on a 87-57 vote.
Democratic legislators worried about the subjectivity of profane content and community values, potentially leading to the removal of books at the whim of established library councils. “Books help our kids understand the world, and sometimes they help them survive it,” said Representative Christina Morales, a Houston Democrat. “We are here debating books while schools lack basic resources, and many kids are being failed by the systems around them.”
Earlier in the weekend, the House convened over 13 hours on Saturday to vote on a litany of bills, including Senate Bill 12, dubbed the “Parental Bill of Rights.” The omnibus bill would prohibit all “DEI duties,” including in hiring decisions, and would prohibit instruction on LGBTQ+ topics. Representative Jeff Leach, who carried the bill in the House, got amendments passed to include due process for employees terminated for engaging in DEI duties and clarified that schools could recruit from historically Black colleges to diversify its applicant pool.
The House also approved an amendment from state Representative Steve Toth that would prohibit teachers from helping students “socially transition” by using a name or pronouns incongruent with a students’ biological sex. The bill passed 88-47 on Sunday. The Senate refused to concur with the House’s changes and have convened a conference committee to negotiate the differences.
The House also passed an amended version of Senate Bill 37 on Sunday, an omnibus bill focusing on the idea of “shared governance” between the governing board of regents at a higher education institution and its faculty and administration. Under the House’s version of the bill, authored by Representative Matt Shaheen, an institution’s governing board would review core curricula, degree minors, and certificates at least once every five years. “Senate Bill 37 ensures degrees earned in Texas are of value and prepare students for success, both in life and in the workforce,” Shaheen said.
Governing boards, comprised solely of political appointees, would also approve or deny the hiring of provosts. The bill also calls for the Higher Education Coordinating Board to create the office of the ombudsman, a gubernatorial appointee that will act as an intermediary between the Legislature and the state’s university systems.
Shaheen’s version of that senate bill has some key differences, including the removal of a section that would require universities to evaluate all of its degree programs.
Opponents of the bill, like Representative Donna Howard, warned that the measure would create a chilling effect on professors and academic freedom writ large. “I believe in accountability, I believe in efficiency, I believe in preparing students for the workforce, but I also believe in local governance and institutional autonomy,” Howard said. “[This bill] undermines faculty voices and injects politics into the classroom at a time when we should be laser focused on expanding access, improving student outcomes, and restoring trust in our education systems.”
The amended version ultimately passed the House largely along party lines. The Senate also declined to accept the changes on this bill, which now is in conference committee.
One of the most heavily contested debates of the House weekend marathon came over Senate Bill 10, proposing to mandate by state law that each and every single one of the tens of thousands of public school classrooms—kindergarten to 12th Grade—in Texas display a poster of the Ten Commandments.
The bill had first come to the House floor on Wednesday only to be flushed back to committee due to a successful parliamentary tactic. But, like Jesus himself, the bill rose from the dead and returned to the House floor three days later.
In her bill layout, state Representative Candy Noble said the Ten Commandments are “foundational” to the American education system and that displaying commandments in classrooms will ensure kids know not to lie, steal, or kill. “Our classrooms are crying for moral guidance,” said Noble during a committee hearing on the bill.
The proposed law specifies the very dimensions (at least “16 inches wide and 20 inches tall”) and font size (“legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom”) required of the state-mandated biblical posters. (The bill does not go so far as to specify a font color—Noble affirmed it could, in theory, be rainbow, “like the one in Noah’s ark.”) Schools must accept private donations of legally compliant posters and otherwise may, but are not required, to use their budget to buy those posters.
During the bill debate, which took place on Saturday—the Jewish Sabbath—state Representative James Talarico, an Austin Democrat, asked Noble to read the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Talarico also brought up concerns about students who aren’t Christian having to see the Ten Commandments every day. Rather than feeling alienated, Noble said, the students would likely be curious. “It would be to their enlightenment to see what made our forefathers tick,” Noble said. The House tabled several amendments that proposed including other core texts or principles from other religions.
Noble said she looked forward to curious children asking the sort of questions that will surely come from seeing a poster of the Ten Commandments in their classroom—such as, “What is adultery?” or “What is a manservant?”—and for teachers to bear the responsibility of answering such queries.
Legislators also brought up the concept of separation of church and state, which Noble repeatedly contested was not meant to keep the church out of the state but the government out of the church—“government was made by God for men,” she said.
Talarico said he worried the bill would push people away from Christianity. “There is a spiritual crisis in our world that must be addressed, but this bill is not the way to address it,” Talarico said. “This is a power play by using our power as legislators to elevate our faith tradition over all the rest. … Instead of leading by example, we’re leading by mandate.”
The House approved SB 10 on final passage the next day, Sunday—the Lord’s day of rest and worship in Christianity. Governor Greg Abbott has said he intends to sign the bill into law.
This will almost surely invite a swift legal challenge—a federal judge ruled that a similar Louisiana law was unconstitutional last November. Indeed, Texas Republicans’ very intent with this bill is likely to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take a new stance on the doctrine of church and state separation.
On that front, the House was kind enough to add an amendment stipulating that the State of Texas must defend and cover any legal expenses incurred by local school districts sued over this law.
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