Republicans Fumble Public Education in This Week’s Texas House Hearing

Public school advocates left frustrated as GOP pushes privatization agenda.

It’s Groundhog Day in Texas, which means that, once again, Republicans are failing our public education system. Watching this week’s committee hearings (Monday and Tuesday), we were all reminded of yet another reason why the GOP is terrible at governing.

First and foremost, the Representatives on this Committee make no sense.

• Chair: Representative Brad Buckley, a multi-millionaire veterinarian and rancher who lives in the most rural area of Bell County. If you know anything about Bell County, you know that Republicans are the representation here only due to extreme gerrymandering.

• Representative Brian Harrison, a millionaire Labradoodle breeder. To be clear, his wealth was primarily generated from politics. But what does he know about education? Harrison is a post-capitalism extremist who wants to privatize public schools because that’s what his billionaire donors wish to do. Listen to Harrison disrespect Democrats on the dias:

• Then, there is Representative Matt Schaefer. The Texas House will be a better place next year now that Schaefer is retiring. But there is one clip that can entirely sum up who Shaefer is, from a Christian Nationalist Conference in 2021:

No one can watch the 3-minute clip above and think this guy should be making laws for PUBLIC schools.

This week, in the committee hearings, Schaefer further proved how unqualified he was when he went on a Christian Nationalist rant about America. It started when Representative James Talarico (Democrat and actual teacher) grilled Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath about inserting Christian Nationalism in the TEKS curriculum (we’ll get to that). Schaefer followed up the exchange with some nonsensical rant about how Christianity funded America. It wasn’t.

Further reading:

• HuffPost: America Is Not a Christian Nation

• Secular Humanism: The United States Is Not a Christian Nation. It Never Has Been, and It Never Will Be

• History Network News: The U.S. a Christian Nation? Not According to the Founders!

Here’s Schaefer’s stupid rant:

Note: Matt Schaefer represents Smith County, which borders Gregg County. This made me think of the 1981 Republican Mike Martin, who used to represent Gregg County. The Martin story is still one of the funniest Texas Legislative tales I’ve ever written. It’s a tale of when Christian Nationalism and Republican politics went awry. If you missed it and are up for a laugh, you can find it here: A Texas Tall Tale: The Curious Case of Mike Martin.

• Representative Cody Harrison was also a strange choice for this Committee. He’s a second-generation ranch broker (real estate). Here, he is saying that his constituents want Christian Nationalism in their public schools:

That wasn’t about vouchers. So, what was it about?

The two-day committee hearing included the following charges:

• Examine the causes for and the impact on student outcomes of the increasing number of newly hired Texas teachers who are not certified by the State Board for Educator Certification.

• Evaluate opportunities to improve students’ foundational early literacy and numeracy outcomes in Pre-Kindergarten through the third grade.

• Monitor the agencies and programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction and oversee the implementation of relevant legislation passed by the 88th Legislature.

• Consider issues and matters to increase educational opportunities in Texas to ensure students and families have increased options to attend a high-quality school, regardless of circumstance.

Vouchers were discussed, and so were a few other things. The point that was made incredibly clear over this two-day hearing was that Republicans are miserably failing Texas public schools.

Some of the discussion also included how Texas education leaders inserted a Bible-infused elementary school curriculum a few months back. If you don’t watch any other clips, I urge you to watch Representative Talarico grill Mike Morath on this Bible-infused curriculum.

What about vouchers?

Republican’s hand-picked witnesses flew in from Utah, Indiana, and Louisiana to discuss how great vouchers have been in their state. These witnesses mostly had financial interests in the private schools they came from.

If you want to see their full, nearly-three-hour testimony, you can find it on my YouTube account here: Republicans Talk With Out-Of-State Profiteers Regarding Voucher Schemes.

My favorite part was when Representative Talarico commented that it was the most out-of-staters he had ever seen on one panel. Their testimony was nothing but an infomercial:

And as many people have repeatedly said about the Republican’s voucher scheme, it’s racist and will lead to segregation.

Here is Representative Gina Hinojosa bringing that point home:

Representative Talarico (D) also highlighted the racist origins of school vouchers here in Texas:

Representative Talarico and Representative Harrison are polar opposites.

What stood out to me in this hearing was that the two Reps who were most passionate and had the most to add to the conversation were Talarico and Harrison. Watching them over the last two days painted two clear pictures for me. The Texas that I want and the Texas that I don’t want.

Talarico had the facts and genuinely expressed interest in the well-being of all students. Harrison ignored the facts, finding opportunistic times to use political words and play political games. While parents and educators were pleading with House members to fund public education and drop the voucher scheme, Harrison was tweeting how great a voucher scheme would be.

Parents like this mom who used facts to talk about why vouchers are ridiculous:

And educators, like this School ISD Board Member who talked about how his public school district needed adequate funding and how his teachers and constituents were adamantly against the voucher scheme:

Do these interim hearings serve any purpose other than making our blood boil?

Hypothetically, the Legislature holds interim hearings during the legislative “off-period” to discuss issues. When the Legislature reconvenes in January, they’ll know the problems and have some bills ready.

They do this because we have a part-time Legislature. Republicans aren’t expecting to lose control after the November election, but they could. In the worst-case scenario, Democrats don’t flip the House but slim down the Republican majority. Republicans are still having their Civil War. There are still multiple factions in the Republican Party of Texas.

Further reading:

• Should The Texas State Legislators Work Full Time With A Living Wage?

They might not even have the vote for vouchers in January. (I’ll have a complete list of the pro-voucher Republicans and the Democrats running against them in the next few weeks.)

While they can discuss legislation and hold hearings on issues, they cannot pass legislation again until the 89th Legislative session starts in January.

Are these hearings pointless?

They have the right idea but focus on partisan priorities instead of what’s best for all Texans.

A few months ago, the Texas Senate held a committee hearing where the Republicans invited witnesses to spend the first two hours lying and/or spreading misinformation about how the internet works. The hearing was about “Identifying threats to Texas’s election integrity, including those from “Big Tech” and foreign entities.”

The witnesses discussed how Google interfered with the 2024 election because specific Republican stories weren’t showing up as the top result. They stupidly believed that people were working at Google, making sure that the 8.5 billion searches conducted each day favored Democrats in America. They also talked about how social media interfered with the 2024 election by removing misinformation and hate speech from their platforms.

If you’re curious: How does Google Search work?

The short of it is that the invited Republican witnesses didn’t understand how the internet worked and invented conspiracies out of it. So, in January, we can expect Senate Republicans to introduce bills based on the conspiracies from their partisan witnesses who don’t understand how the internet works.

It’s a big, massive waste of taxpayer dollars.

On the surface, these hearings could serve a vital role in addressing the pressing needs of Texas’ public education system. They are meant to be opportunities for lawmakers to gather information, assess current affairs, and engage with experts and the public to craft effective policy solutions. However, with Republicans at the helm, these hearings have become nothing more than partisan spectacles, prioritizing ideology over facts and the needs of Texans.

While these hearings have the potential to be meaningful and impactful, they have been rendered pointless under the current Republican leadership. They serve as yet another example of how the GOP’s priorities are out of step with the needs of everyday Texans. But imagine the possibilities if we had leaders who genuinely cared about public education and were committed to governing for the common good. The hearings wouldn’t just be an exercise in futility—they could be a cornerstone of progress for Texas’ future.

The future of Texas’ public education system depends on who we elect to represent us in November.

The current Republican leadership has shown time and again that they are more interested in advancing their ideological agendas than in ensuring our children receive the quality education they deserve. As voters, we have the power to change that. It’s time to elect leaders committed to public education, listen to educators and parents, and understand that our student’s success is the foundation for the success of our state. The stakes couldn’t be higher—let’s not let another generation of Texas students fall victim to political games.

Vote often, vote early, just vote.

• August 19: Last day for write-in candidates to declare their candidacy.

• October 7: Last day to register to vote.

• October 21: First day to early vote.

• October 25: Last day to apply for a mail-in ballot.

• November 1: Last day to early vote.

• November 5: Election day!

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