A Win for Texas
What to know: Texas voters approved Proposition 1 on the November ballot to provide a funding stream for Texas State Technical College.
The TPPF take: Texas voters gave the green light to power up our workforce by approving Proposition 1, creating a permanent endowment for the Texas State Technical College System (TSTC).
“This victory strengthens Texas’ commitment to rewarding hard work and self-reliance by ensuring more Texans can gain high-paying, in-demand skills without taking on crippling debt,” says TPPF’s Kate Bierly. “With stable, long-term funding through the new Technical Institution Infrastructure Fund, TSTC can meet the workforce needs of Texas’ fast-growing economy, all without raising taxes. This is a win for Texas!”
For more on Prop. 1 and skills training, click here.
Violating the Public Trust
What to know: A recent Austin American-Statesman investigation revealed that Austin’s political elite are donating public monies to pet special interest groups, prompting Governor Greg Abbott to declare, “Austin City Council members are using your property tax dollars to give to political organizations. That should ALREADY be illegal. If not, we must make it illegal next session.”
The TPPF take: Texans expect their tax dollars to go toward potholes and police, not politicking.
“The city of Austin is giving away public money to a handful of favored political causes—and property tax bills are skyrocketing as a result. This is a gross violation of the public trust,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “The next Texas Legislature must make it crystal clear that public monies are for public purposes. Period.”
For more on local spending, click here.
A Success?
What to know: Texas has a rule that grants automatic admission to public universities for students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school classes. But is that rule a success? The outcomes seem mixed.
The TPPF take: The Texas Top 10% rule is a well-intentioned failure.
“At its core, the rule rejects a universal metric of merit. A student in a rigorous, competitive high school—say, one where the valedictorian scores 1550 on the SAT—may rank 11th and lose automatic admission,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “Meanwhile, a student in a less demanding school, where the curriculum is lighter, secures a spot with a 1200 SAT simply by cracking the top 10%. The policy thus rewards the relative standing within a school, not absolute preparation or potential. This is not equality under the law; it is a lottery keyed to the accident of one’s campus.”
For more on the top 10% rule, click here.