Uri Berliner’s exposure of National Public Radio, James Bennet’s truth-telling about The New York Times, and the recent outrage at CBS News over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview are just the latest signs of something we’ve all been seeing for over a decade. Online newspapers and other electronic outlets that used to speak with authority are broken....
The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) brought in a conference speaker who urged school board members to use teacher raises as a “weapon”—because they’ll need teachers angry enough to apply political pressure in the upcoming Texas legislative session. Speaking with the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Mandy Drogin, Dripping Springs ISD board member Rob McClelland...
At Eastridge Elementary School, Principal Genie Baca’s teachers have enough challenges. Their students are mostly refugees, recent immigrants from countries such as Somalia, Yemen, Vietnam and Burma, among many others. The parents are often shift workers at local meatpacking or poultry processing facilities, meaning that no one’s home to ensure the children are fed and...
Great public schools need a great curriculum—and great teachers need time for teaching, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath explained in a recent interview with TPPF’s Greg Sindelar. A new state law should help, Morath said, as the State Board of Education begins the public review and comment period for new instructional materials. Some of these...
Fears of ‘government strings’ and bureaucratic restrictions are unfounded if the school-choice legislation is crafted carefully. Can you imagine a less modern opinion than this? “The one thing that is never taught by any chance in the atmosphere of public schools is this: that there is a whole truth of things, and that in knowing it and...
In a fractured nation with a toxic public square, ham radio — even in this always-online digital age — is a thriving part of civil society. Shannon Vore and her friend C.J. Bouchard were out four-wheeling in their Jeep last fall when a passing trucker warned them of what looked like an ATV accident nearby. They said...
Texas history buff J.P. Bryan’s lawsuit against the Texas State Historical Association won’t go to trial; the two parties have come to an agreement on the TSHA’s leftward lurch and the composition of its board. TSHA President Nancy Baker Jones agreed to step down, along with the board secretary. The board will now be rebalanced...
Noting that the term for the current Texas State Historical Association chief historian has expired, state Sen. Mayes Middleton is calling on the University of Texas at Austin to appoint a replacement who hasn’t belittled the Alamo defenders and early Texas residents. Chief Historian Walter Buenger, Ph.D., has been chief historian for the TSHA since...
The corporate media never lets facts get in the way of a good story. Consider the hubbub around House Bill 2127, or the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, as the latest evidence of this. In spite of the new law not even taking effect until Sept. 1, media outlets are already churning out hyperbolic headlines, presumably...
GALVESTON—A state district court handed a procedural win to a Texas history buff who wants to save the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) from going woke. On Tuesday, 10th District Court Judge Kerry Neves turned a temporary restraining order into an injunction—preventing the TSHA from firing its volunteer executive director. J.P. Bryan is a retired...
MONDAY UPDATE: The hearing involving a lawsuit against Texas State Historical Association leaders, slated for Monday, has been postponed to May 30. GALVESTON — How Texas teaches history—indeed, how Texas sees itself—will be in a Galveston County courtroom on Monday. At issue are the bylaws of the Texas State Historical Association, a nonprofit that publishes...
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — Jorge Mijares left Venezuela months ago — last November, he says. He’s been in Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, for four weeks. But he planned to cross over Thursday night, as Title 42 immigration restrictions ended. “I have the app,” said Mijares, 54. “I’m just waiting for it...