Day 36: How the Texas GOP Is Rigging Bail, Schools, And Everything In Between
Follow the money, follow the lies, follow the damage.
While we’ve already seen a lot of contention in the Texas House this session and can expect much more, I wanted to highlight a very human moment from yesterday. The House voted on a resolution by Senfronia Thompson (D-HD141), congratulating Representative Harold Dutton (D-HD142) on his 80th Birthday and 40th anniversary in the Texas House.
It’s a short clip (3 minutes), but you’ll be smiling if you watch the entire thing.
You’re thinking, “Wow, we have House Reps serving since the 80s.” Actually, we have House Reps who have been around since the 70s and one who even has been a legislator since before the moon landing. Tom Craddick (R-HD82) won his first election in 1968.
Underneath the theatrics, as it turns out, the people in office are just regular-day folks. Most of them, anyway.
The villain of the 89th Legislative Session.
If you pay attention to the Texas House long enough, you’ll notice that there’s always a Republican villain each session. Last session, it was Tony Tinderholt (R-HD94). The session before that was Bryan Slaton. These are always the House members who challenge everything, argue with everyone, and throw the most temper tantrums. This year, it’s obviously going to be Brian Harrison (R-HD10).
The far-right, a.k.a. the Brainworm Brigade, was at it again yesterday. Harrison got Mike Olcott (R-HD60) and Brent Money (R-HD02) to do some of his bidding this time.
While the “normal” Republicans will work with their Democratic peers and pretend to have some semblance of bipartisanship, the Tim Dunn-funded faction seems hell-bent on tapdancing while alienating their peers.
Here’s the telling part. While the committees and the whole body of the House aren’t meeting on the so-called “long weekend,” the members are still working. They meet with constituents and work on bills behind the scenes. The Legislature only has three weeks left until the deadline to file legislation. They’re all working, but not the Brainworm Brigade. Nope, they only work when the cameras are on.
Do you remember last year when we met Helen Kerwin (R-HD58), Nazi Grandma?
See:
As it turns out, Kerwin’s daughter is Brooke Rollins, Trump’s new Secretary of Agriculture at the United States Department of Agriculture. Rollins visited the Texas House yesterday to take pictures with her mom and the other GOP fascists.
It just goes to show how close Texas fascism is to Trump fascism (if it wasn’t already obvious).
Education Commissioner Mike Morath testified at the House Appropriations Committee for four hours.
There is a difference between the House and the Senate, especially regarding how legislators interact with one another and the witnesses in Committees. The House Democrats are more like a dog on a bone when grilling Republican appointees like Mike Morath.
If you’re interested, here is Mike Morath’s testimony from yesterday:
When Morath gave his presentation, showing the funding data and increased state appropriations for public education, multiple Democrats pushed back on this, arguing that much of the increase was offset by property tax relief rather than new school investment.
Mary González (D-HD75) criticized the funding breakdown, saying it misrepresented a higher per-pupil amount than schools receive for daily operations. Donna Howard (D-HD48) also pointed out how the Recapture revenue was included in per-pupil spending, which was misleading since those funds are redistributed and don’t represent what each student receives.
So, Morath lied in his presentation… or intentionally misled the Senate Committee on Finance. This was never pointed out in the same presentation he gave for the Senate, but thankfully, House Democrats noticed it.
In the last session, the Legislature passed an unfunded mandate that every school in Texas have an armed security guard. An unfunded mandate occurs when a law requires a city or county to do something that costs money, but the state government doesn’t provide the funds to do it. Many districts struggle to afford officers’ salaries, leading to budget shortfalls and increases in property taxes.
Lauren Simmons (D-HD146) did have a chance to speak directly with Morath, which I was pleased to see. You may remember last year when Simmons popped on the scene with a viral video tearing Houston Superintendent Mike Miles a new one. Simmons decided to run for office in the first place because of the HISD takeover.
The takeaways from the hearing:
Texas public schools face funding instability due to property tax manipulation, declining enrollment, and the running out of COVID relief money.
Charter and public schools are expanding with little oversight, while public schools are being shut down in many urban areas.
Texas is moving toward an unregulated workforce in schools and reducing professional standards.
The push for vouchers and ESAs could gut public school funding, sending tax dollars to private institutions without accountability.
The long-term conservative agenda appears to be dismantling the traditional public school system in favor of privatization.
Joan Huffman’s (R-SD17) so-called bail reforms passed the Senate yesterday.
The first is SB9, which disproportionately affects low-income individuals who cannot afford cash bail, forcing them into pretrial detention even if they are not flight risks or violent. While the bill claims to target “violent repeat offenders,” it also removes personal bond eligibility for a broad range of offenses.
Huffman’s bills go against the very principle of innocent until proven guilty.
Shifting bail decisions to elected judges may lead to politicized decisions, where judges fear appearing “soft on crime” and set excessively high bonds. The bill increases judicial accountability to voters but does not protect against biases based on race, class, or immigration status.
The second Senate bill passed yesterday was SB40, which targets organizations like The Bail Project. This bill prohibits local governments from funding charitable bail organizations, which help low-income individuals post bail.
Poor defendants will be forced to remain in jail without bail funds during their pretrial, while wealthier defendants can pay for release. This exacerbates systemic inequalities in the justice system.
Right-wing activists or anti-reform groups could use this law to sue progressive counties, making bail reform legally risky. All of these so-called bail reforms by Republicans do is further criminalize poverty, undermine local control, and set the stage for more state crackdowns on progressive reforms.
During the debate on these bills, Senators Alvarado (D-SD06) and Johnson (D-SD16) criticized the bills’ intentions and possible constitutionality. However, Cook (D-SD15), Eckhardt (D-SD14), and Gutierrez (D-SD19) were the only Democrats to vote against them.
This goes back to the differences between Senate Democrats and House Democrats. Maybe they vote for Republican bills to go along and get along with their co-workers, but in the long run, it hurts their image and even future political aspirations.
Take Royce West (D-SD23), for example. In 2020, he ran for the US Senate seat against John Cornyn but didn’t make it through the primary. Much of the arguments against him that year was his voting record, particularly how specific votes related to gun violence aligned with Republicans.
I always just figured that the Democratic Senators (as a whole) leaned much more to the center than House Democrats. Maybe that’s true, or perhaps the Senate has a culture of just trying to get along with one another. Either way, the House and the Senate are like apples and oranges.
Anyway, did you see this video of 77-year-old Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann collapsing on the State Senate floor?
It made me think of our own Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, who is only three years younger. Between this and all of the elderly Congresspeople falling down stairs in Washington, DC, one wonders if we really do have a gerontocracy. 🤷🏻♀️
What’s coming up?
The House and the Senate will gavel in today, but each chamber will not meet again until Tuesday. Republicans plan on passing this bill in the Senate today:
We’ll see if there is much Democratic pushback. Again, these so-called bail reform bills are all about punishing people in poverty and denying them “innocent until proven guilty.” Judges should have the final say in deciding bail on a case-by-case basis. This takes the power away from them.
The Senate Committee on Education will meet today to discuss teacher pay raises. I’ll be watching and have an update for you tomorrow.
The Senate Committee on Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs will meet on Monday to discuss several bills.
Also Monday, the Subcommittees on House Appropriations will meet to discuss budget items.
There are no other hearings scheduled, but the number will increase weekly from now on. The Legislature only has to give a 24-hour notice for hearings, so more could pop up anytime.
The Texas Legislature is in full swing, and as always, there’s no shortage of drama, bad policy, and political maneuvering.
While we may catch glimpses of humanity, like celebrating Harold Dutton’s milestone, those moments are overshadowed by the larger power struggles defining this session.
From Brian Harrison and his band of grandstanding far-right disruptors to Mike Morath’s misleading testimony on school funding, it’s clear that the conservative agenda is steamrolling ahead. Public education is under siege, bail reform is being weaponized against the poor, and Senate Democrats continue to play nice while House Democrats go to war.
The next few weeks will be critical, with major deadlines approaching and hearings popping up on short notice. Expect more manufactured outrage from the far right, more deceptive policymaking from Republican leadership, and, hopefully, more resistance from the left.
I’ll keep watching, so you don’t have to. Stay tuned.
March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.
June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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Always good reporting, Michelle. Thanks.
Think Brian Harrison is going to primary challenge Jake Ellzey or is his planning a higher state office run? I just worry cause if he does, then we have to start working hard in CD 6.