As an undergraduate at the University of Texas, I was tasked with investigating the funding sources of Hamas, the terrorist group that murdered 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, on Oct. 7, 2023. A truth became apparent: Qatar was not only one of Hamas’s biggest funders, having contributed billions of dollars, but also one of the largest foreign...
On April 7, the State Board of Education is set to give its final approval to new Social Studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), a much-needed reform to the standards that determine what educators teach. Here’s what you need to know: The current Social Studies TEKS are profoundly inadequate. The flaws of the K-8...
Texas local governments use taxpayer dollars to hire lobbyists to influence state legislation—creating conflicts of interest, distorting democratic accountability, and undermining the interests of Texas taxpayers. Key points: Taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures more than doubled from the 85th to the 89th Legislature, now reaching as high as $111.5 million. Taxpayer-funded lobbyists consistently opposed legislation involving property...