Have a Seat!
What to know: Richardson schools are moving to allow more students from outside their district to enroll, in an effort to fill up seats.
The TPPF take: Lawmakers must make student transfers easier—and free.
“In districts I’ve served, I’ve been thrilled when we could offer available seats to students who wanted to transfer to our district,” says school superintendent Mike Goddard, Ed.D. “Here’s why: they bring in full formula funding for seats that would otherwise have been empty. That’s thousands of dollars per student added to district revenues, without any significant new costs.”
For more on student transfers, click here.
The Sky is Falling for Real This Time!
What to know: The Texas Legislature’s efforts to rein in DEI, CRT and tenure at Texas public colleges and universities will “drive away private investments in higher education and disqualify the state for federal programs worth billions,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
The TPPF take: The Chronicle made the same prediction about protecting Texas elections in the last legislative session. It was wrong, then, too. The truth is that DEI and CRT have no place in public universities.
“According to DEI, the system is rigged and DEI officers say to ‘mitigate racism,’ they must dismantle all those systems and overthrow those values,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “That’s why an applicant for a biology professor job at Texas Tech was disqualified when he said he treated all his students equally. Equality is not a DEI value.”
For more on DEI, CRT and tenure, click here.
Safe Drug Use?
What to know: Rhode Island is scheduled to open a “safe” injection site for those who choose to use illegal (and deadly) drugs in early 2024, despite the fact they are illegal under federal law.
The TPPF take: Experimenting with drug consumption sites is an invitation to further peril.
“Who is served by safe injection sites? Drug dealers who want easy access to the highly motivated customer base is the only group that benefits,” says TPPF’s Michele Steeb. “Dealers congregate near the drug consumption sites including in Vancouver, where this disastrous program was introduced in North America.
This is why we are so grateful to Senator Tan Parker and Representative Ben Baumgarner who are championing legislation – SB 1388 and HB 4667 – to prevent these sites from ever seeing the light of day in Texas!
For more on injection sites, click here.