Mapping the 💰 flowing from billionaires & millionaires into PAC and to candidates, all in the name of kneecapping Texas public education (and getting those public tax dollars, allowing them to segregate, indoctrinate, and line pockets) is illuminating.
#txlege #txed (1/10) Billionaire Jeff Yass dropped $16,700,000, with $10.25 million going to Gov Greg Abbott, $5.7 mil to AFC Victory Fund, and $750k to Lt Gov Dan Patrick. All to drive vouchers. (2/10)

TX Pres Election Outcomes
2000 - 38.0% Dem v 59.3% Rep (George Bush)
2004 - 38.2% D v 61.1% R (Bush)
2008 - 43.7% D v 55.5% R (John McCain)
2012 - 41.4% D v 57.2% R (Mitt Romney)
2016 - 43.2% D v 52.2% R (Donald Trump)
2020 - 46.5% D v 52.1% R (Trump)
There is a trend There is a trend that shows Texas moving closer to blue. But Texas is a big state. It isn’t getting blue everywhere. I’m going to show you some trends on votes for Republicans and the diversity of the population.
I think you will see the same thing I do.
#txlege

Texas Federation for Children
AFC Victory Fund
Family Empowerment Coalition
Texans for Educational Freedom
TUCM
Texas Public Policy Foundation
School Freedom Fund
Club for Growth Action

👆Thats who is pushing vouchers in Texas. But who’s funding it all?
open.substack.com/pub/christacke…
If you want to understand the push for vouchers in Texas, where it has been tried over and over but has never gotten across a finish line, you need only follow the money to figure out this has been a multi-year (heck, multi-decade) push to erode trust in public education.

Yes, the Trump hawked “God Bless The USA” bible is a new thing, but blatantly #ChristianNationalism bibles have been out there for 15+ years.
Two examples:
American Patriot’s Bible
The Founder’s Bible (yes, David Barton)

These intermingle “history” next to verses.
#SINIFI





Here are sample pages from “American Patriot’s Bible”, published in 2009.
Interspersed throughout are elements to connect America and Christianity

“a cultural framework that blurs distinctions between Christian and American identity, seeking to enhance and preserve their union”

Christian nationalism has been building for decades. @mentack and I became aware of it living in Granbury, as it took over our hometown. This 🧵 is my attempt to tie together where we've been, what's happening, and what's next.
1st video is Lance Wallnau in 2009. 7 Mountains. David Barton (and his WallBuilders org) is a false, debunked historian, but he has the ear of many leaders in the Republican Party, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Here is Barton in 2011 discussing 7 Mountains dominionism on his WallBuilders Live broadcast. #SINIFI

The fight over vouchers in Texas is coming to a head. @RANewsTX and @HoustonChron collaborated to illustrate the narrative.

It is more than just Wilks and Dunn. Other billionaires are playing too.

Vouchers aren't about kids. It's about money, religion, & race.
#txed #txlege

Vouchers aren't about kids. They are about money, religion, & race. Have been since 1954.

Here are the individual panels from the @RANewsTX and @HoustonChron collaboration to call out what is happening in Texas. (1/4) #txed #txlege #NoVouchers

A 🧵
You are the manager of a department in a large company.
You must hire and train the first 25 new employees who enter the room, no matter their skill level or experience.
It's the law. Some of your trainees don't have the tools necessary to complete their training. The company doesn't provide all of the needed tools, so you must be sure to buy extra tools to have on hand for those trainees.

There is a concerted attack on public schools in Texas. This is a map of the money and groups out front leading the charge.

Yes, it is elected leaders like Abbott, Patrick, and other lawmakers, but it's billionaires, PACs, and Organizations pulling the strings.
#txlege #txed Texas Federation for Children is the state focused version of American Federation for Children, formerly run by Betsy DeVos before she became Secretary of Education (still can't believe that was a thing).
All about vouchers and $ to private schools
$1.92 million in
#txlege #txed

25 billionaires have each dropped at least $5 million into Texas state level politics since 2000 and are still pumping in cash. It's the same folks giving to the same candidates and PACs.
The Texas Oligarchs are the ones pulling the strings.
$275 million + strings #1 Recipient of the Texas Oligarchs investment since 2000?
Texas Governor Greg Abbott
$47 million
$7.19m - Anwar
$4.7m - Troutt
$4.35m - Pitcock
$3.64m - Porter
$3.34m - Warren

Last week, I posted these, showing where Texas is growing, grouped by number of Registered voters in the ranked counties (1=most registered, 254=least registered), as well as how those same ranked counties voted in each election.
It is eye-popping. A few more thoughts 🧵

I also posted scatter diagrams, showing how each individual Texas county voted. The Y-axis is what % of voters in the county voted R, and the X-axis shows what % of the county was White, Non-Anglo.
Trendline is pretty obvious. More White = More R
Here is 2022 for reference.

Emily Ramser was one of 12 Outstanding Teaching Humanities award winners in the state of Texas. She received her award at the May 22, 2023 Grapevine-Colleyville ISD board meeting. She told the board why she was resigning moments later.

Keeping reading for more from Emily #txed Emily Ramser, now former Grapevine-Colleyville ISD award winning teacher, was featured in this NBC News story.

nbcnews.com/nightly-news/v…

Voucher proponents say “allow funding to follow the student instead of the system”.

This is designed to decimate the public ed system, diverting public dollars to private, faith based institutions, in many cases to re-segregate schools, taking us back to the 1950’s
#txlege #txed

https://twitter.com/mentack/status/1669658385753468930

Texas Republicans in #txlege who take an anti-voucher stance are supporting the buildings, but not the people in them.

You see it in their legislation and votes, banning books, marginalizing and erasing LGBTQ students and staff, dictating that real history can’t be taught. #txed

As you see posts for a Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) alternative called Texans For Excellence In Eduction (TEE) being pushed by two State House members, the Tarrant County Judge, and a State Board of Education member... (1 of 5) #txed #txlege And you look at Texans for Excellence in Education website, which calls out not being "driven by political agendas", and also their Facebook ads currently running, focusing on "students' well being", "the beginning of a new era of representation", and "myths vs facts"... (2)

The ninth and final batch of Texas House scorecards
This release covers T to Z, from James Talarico to Erin Zwiener
Full details on how each Rep voted on all 50 items will be available on SeeItNameItFightIt.com in the near future
#SeeItNameItFightIt #txlege James Talarico (HD50) earned an "A" rating
With 49 tracked votes taken, he voted against Christian nationalism and for a more inclusive Texas 47 times
That's 96%
#SeeItNameItFightIt @SeeNameFightIt

Batch eight of Texas House scorecards.
This release covers the letter S, from Matt Schaefer to Valoree Swanson
Full details on how each Rep voted on all 50 items will be available on SeeItNameItFightIt.com in the near future.
#SeeItNameItFightIt #txlege Matt Schaefer (HD6) earned an "F" rating
With 49 tracked votes taken, he voted against Christian nationalism and for a more inclusive Texas 4 times
That's 8%
#SeeItNameItFightIt @SeeNameFightIt

Batch seven of Texas House scorecards.
This release covers N to R, from Victoria Neave Criado to Jon Rosenthal
Full details on how each Rep voted on all 50 items will be available on SeeItNameItFightIt.com in the near future.
#SeeItNameItFightIt #txlege Victoria Neave Criado (HD107) earned an "A" rating
With 50 tracked votes taken, she voted against Christian nationalism and for a more inclusive Texas 47 times
That's 94%
#SeeItNameItFightIt @SeeNameFightIt

Batch six of Texas House scorecards. This release covers L to M, from Suleman Lalani to Andrew Murr
Full details on how each Rep voted on all 50 items will be available on SeeItNameItFightIt.com in the near future.
#SeeItNameItFightIt #txlege Suleman Lanani (HD76) earned an "A" rating
With 47 tracked votes taken, he voted against Christian nationalism and for a more inclusive Texas 44 times
That's 94%
#SeeItNameItFightIt @SeeNameFightIt

Chaplains in public schools, replacing counselors (SB763), passed the House yesterday. Every Republican was for it

This is what they voted for. Rocky Malloy was an invited witness in both chambers. He runs Mission Generation and National School Chaplain Association
#txlege (1/2) (2/2) Chaplains in public schools, replacing counselors (SB763), passed the House yesterday. Every Republican was for it

More from Rocky Malloy, an invited witness in both chambers. He runs Mission Generation and National School Chaplain Association
This is the push
#txlege

Early voting for municipal races in Texas starts today. Gateway Church and pastor Robert Morris are in their #PoliticsFromThePulpit mode, not endorsing, but asking you to take pictures of the screen.

This is tax free religion attempting to grab levers of power
#txed #txlege Gateway Church in Southlake, TX (with other campuses too), and Pastor Robert Morris, have evolved how they discuss voting and elections from the pulpit. This 🧵 captures things.
This is 2020, the Presidential election
#PoliticsFromThePulpit #txlege #txed

When they talk about wanting to return to “traditional values”, they are talking about an idealized time (for those like them), when white men held all the power and women knew their place. It’s patriarchy.

The imagery of the time drives that point home. Painfully. (1/6) 🧵 “Traditional values”

“If your husband ever finds out”
“Most husbands, nowadays, have stopped beating their wives”
“Is it always illegal to kill a woman”
“She was ready to have him walk all over her”
(2/6)

👏 Wow. Just wow. This op-Ed from Amarillo teacher Cecily Riesenberg should be the final word on vouchers and “school choice” in Texas. It won’t be, but it should be. It’s that good. 👏 #txed #txlege

amarillo.com/story/opinion/… The analogy in the article above, about country clubs and swimming pools, immediately reminded me of this piece about community pools and desegregation. Vouchers bring strong parallels.
#txed #txlege
marketplace.org/2021/02/15/pub…