For the disgruntled ultraconservative, nullification may be the new secession. But as one prominent legal scholar puts it, “If you believe in nullification, you don’t believe in the constitution.”
Austin
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Snip, Snip
No surprise here, but still: State leaders want state agencies to cut five percent from their current budgets “due to the uncertainty of the state’s short-term economic future, as well as potentially substantial long-term costs associated with the passage of federal legislation currently being debated in Washington, D.C.”
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Don McLeroy in the Hizz
In the midst of the social studies curriculum revisions, the SBOE member and former chair kicks off a debate about, of all things, hip-hop.
Posted in
State Government
On the Records: Ready, Set, File
Today the campaigns file reports itemizing their donations and expenditures.
Posted in
Public Education
Civil Civics
State Board of Education members played mostly nice with one another Thursday, as they added and subtracted historical figures to the social studies curriculum. In: the first Hispanic Texas Supreme Court justice, Tejanos who died at the Alamo, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Out: “Ma” Ferguson, Henry Cisneros, and Dolores Huerta.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: SBOE = State Board of Editors
When the State Board of Education finally got to amending the social studies curriculum, members burrowed deeply into the weeds, holding extended debates over the parsing of seemingly innocuous phrases, like “citizens” vs. “good citizens.”
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Amid Controversy, Texas Gets an ‘A’ for Standards
But Education Week gives state’s education system average marks in other categories, and a C+ overall.
Posted in
Public Education
The American History Wars
As the SBOE grinded through testimony on Wednesday over its controversial social studies standards, much of the debate teetered on two basic fulcrums: teaching vs. indoctrination and patriotism vs. realism.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Straus Wants to Slow Down on Mansion
The state ought to slow down proposals to expand the Governor’s Mansion, House Speaker Joe Straus said in the inaugural TribLive event this morning, creating an obstacle to an idea endorsed by First Lady Anita Perry that has stirred historic preservationists in Texas.
Posted in
Demographics
Border Skirmish
The GOP challengers to Rick Perry released new border policy initiatives this week. Ben Philpott, who’s covering the governor’s race for KUT News and the Tribune, filed this report.