From Candice Bernd: GOP state leaders for years engaged in a war on local control aimed at big blue cities. But local #Republicans are finding that they, too, have fallen prey as they attempt to resist new data centers. https://www.texasobserver.org/data-center-boom-rural-gop-local-control/
Featured story from @JosphineLee, co-published by @ProPublica: Some experts believe the ultimate objective of any #Texas school district takeover is to disenfranchise local communities.
âIt all begins at the school board level to then completely disempower the community,â said NYU professor Domingo Morel. https://www.texasobserver.org/mike-miles-tea-school-takeovers-charter-austin-fort-worth-houston/
The state education agency took over four additional districts this spring, installing leaders linked to Houstonâs state-imposed superintendent, Mike Miles, including two who worked for his former charter school network.
âGovernor Abbott could call [a special session] tomorrow. He has chosen not to. I mean ⌠we have special sessions over who can use which restroom, but we donât have a special session for this.â https://www.texasobserver.org/data-center-boom-rural-gop-local-control/
#Texas #AI #tech #environment #TXlege #politics #USpol #news
From our magazine: GOP legislators repeatedly insisted that âTexas Education Freedom Accountsâ would be open to any and all types of private schoolsâof all creeds and persuasions.
In predictable fashion, they haven't quite lived up to that promise. https://www.texasobserver.org/school-vouchers-discrimination-brouhaha-abbott/
#vouchers #education #racism #politics #USpol #news #Texas #TXlege
Featured story: "The playbook is the same, scapegoating one community and fear-mongering to be able to get the votes that you need ... And then last summer, you know, the rhetoric translated into direct real world threats against me and my family." https://www.texasobserver.org/the-interview-salman-bhojani/
There is no reasoning with white supremacy.
>Many testifying at Frisco City Council meetings or posting about the city on social media go far beyond asking for immigration reform. Thereâs been a surge in anti-Indian racism on social media since Trump returned to the White House, framing legal immigrants as âjob stealersâ and âinvaders.â A clip of Boy Scouts leading the Pledge of Allegiance before a Frisco City Council meeting went viral, attracting thousands of reposts, many with hateful language, because the boys were Indian.
>
>âIf you go after Boy Scouts, 10-year-old kids doing literally the most American thing ever, how can you also say the issue is assimilation?â Thakur asked. âThis parsing, this segmenting of populations by identity politics, is the worst kind of politics there is.â
State Representative Salman Bhojani's recipe for fixing #Texas elections:
1. Jungle primaries
2. Independently drawn voting districts
3. Ranked choice voting https://www.texasobserver.org/the-interview-salman-bhojani/
"Our job as state representatives is to fully fund our public schools. We havenât done that, so letâs not talk about adding some more. So Iâm still against the private school voucher program, but once you open that floodgate, you have to treat everybody equally." https://www.texasobserver.org/the-interview-salman-bhojani/
#education #vouchers #politics #USpol #news #schools #TXlege #Texas #racism
Carrie đ
Texas Observer
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