Testimony to the Texas State Board of Education

Ban Foreign Funding in Ballot Propositions

Despite federal laws prohibiting foreign funding of candidate elections, foreign individuals and entities are still able to fund campaigns related to state and local ballot initiatives in multiple jurisdictions, creating a loophole that hostile foreign actors can exploit to influence American elections. Key points: Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to candidate campaigns or...

The Last, Best Hope: A New Texas University Looks to Restore Genuine Higher Education

As someone who has spent most of his life working in  American universities, my subsequent writing about it in these pages has been for the most part negative. And not without reason: My on-campus experience, coupled with my research, has led me to agree with the assertion that constitutes the subtitle of  Allan Bloom’s “The...

When Government Lobbies Itself: Why Texas Should Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying

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...