New data from the Bond Review Board suggests that Texas’ local debt soared to a total of $461.3 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2023, up from $417 billion in the prior year. That one-year jump represents a $44 billion increase or roughly 11% growth. The most deeply indebted governmental entities were public school districts. In...
A recent write-up from the Texas Tribune highlights an interesting phenomenon taking root in many major downtown Texas cities: that is, a “glut of empty office space.” As the article explains further: The Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas have office vacancy rates that range from 21% to 25%, vacancies that could complicate the post-pandemic...
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, previously fraught with concerns over its elections, just proved it is responding to the pleas of voters nationwide to further secure its ballot procedures. Since the 2020 election, the county has received complaints about late election returns, meaningful poll-watcher observation, processing absentee ballot envelopes and provisional ballots, ballot shortages, issues with e-poll...
‘Renewable’ energy is still just a marketing term for unreliable energy As winter approaches across the country, the usual seasonal stressors are upon us: Busy social calendars, buying gifts (if we can afford them), and preparing for family functions. For those of us in Texas, however, we have bigger concerns. Memories of going days or...
The following commentary is published on Thursdays as part of TPPF’s subscriber-only newsletter The Post. If you would like to subscribe to The Post, click here. Tomorrow, the Texas House of Representatives will debate a universal school choice bill on the floor for the first time in its history. It’s an important moment that longtime supporters...
A Culture of Death, A Culture of Life What to know: The left’s embrace of Hamas and its killing of civilian victims, including infants, shows that the left is enthralled by a cult of death, writes Gabriel Noah Brahm. The TPPF take: In Texas, we have created and cultivated a culture of life. “America is on two very different...
America’s Lamest Home Videos What to know: The Biden administration has offered to pay Americans to send in videos of their electric vehicles—as long as they’re positive videos and stories about EVs. The TPPF take: Why is the administration trying to boost the image of EVs? One reason is shown in TPPF’s new study, which demonstrates that EVs are...
Rural and Red What to know: The Wall Street Journal notes that in Texas, opposition to parent empowerment can be both rural and red (Republican), even though polls and ballot referendums consistently show rural voters support school choice. The TPPF take: Rural Texans may feel their local public schools are safe and free of the woke political agenda. Sadly,...
Since it has been unable to pass new gun restrictions through the legislative process, President Biden’s Administration is intentionally ignoring and misinterpreting well-established law to shut down lawfully operating gun dealers. TPPF Senior Attorney Matt Miller breaks down how this backdoor scheme works and explains TPPF’s lawsuit to restore Americans’ legal right to purchase firearms.
Illegal activity that harms the U.S. is coming from Mexico in much the same way as it does from other corrupt individuals in other countries the U.S. currently sanctions. Texas should compile a list of corrupt Mexican elites and request the federal government to deny them entry to the U.S. or revoke their visas. Read...
Over the past two years, some parents were shocked to learn that activists school boards, administrators, and teachers have been subjecting students to controversial subjects and material without parents’ consent. Shannon Braun was elected to the Colleyville ISD school board on a promise to protect students and parents’ rights and has been fighting ever since....
Media prophet Marshall McLuhan revolutionized our understanding of communications in the 1970s when he observed that “the medium is the message.” For the terrorists of Hamas, murder and medieval slaughter are clearly the medium. They are also the message. The Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel was so horrific that it was not immediately apparent...
The Texas AFT has bullishly pledged that it will never surrender in the war against school choice in Texas. That’s no surprise; I have watched teachers’ unions fight school choice all over this country for more than 20 years, often successfully. Lost dreams and opportunities for millions of children are the collateral damage. Early in...
Halloween tourists are making their annual descent on Salem, Massachusetts to visit the real-life site of the supernatural on trial—the 1692 execution of 19 people for witchcraft. Piles of books and movies tell the Salem witch trial story, replete with wild-eyed, sexually repressed Puritan zealots roving the dark, foggy countryside seeking out women to drag...
Senate Bill 17, which will close down the so-called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” offices on Texas campuses in January, was not passed to push an ideological agenda on Texas universities. Instead, the priority was to stop a sanctioned system of internal indoctrination that is making students stupid. Recent protests in Austin make it clear that for many...