www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-03 14:58:00
(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday signed Texas’ first school choice bill into law.
Abbott signed “the largest day one school choice program in the United States of America,” he said surrounded by children and state lawmakers.
“Today is the culmination of a movement that has swept across our state and across our country,” Abbott said. “A movement driven by parents … who wanted a better education option” for their children, describing examples. One was mother Hillary Hickland, “who was angry that a woke agenda was being forced on her daughter in a public school and that drove her to run for and win a seat in the Texas legislature,” he said. Abbott endorsed and campaigned for Hickland, who was in attendance at the signing.
“The movement was driven by activists and public policy advocates across the state fueled by a vision for an education system that levels the playing field for parents and expands opportunity for our great children,” Abbott continued. “A movement driven by families who shared my vision – that it is time that we put our children on a pathway to having the number one ranked education system in the United States of America knowing that school choice is part of the formula of achieving that mission.”
He also said he’s traveled across the state “talking about school choice for more than half a decade and … met with thousands of families who have longed for education freedom. These families, and thousands more, have been yearning to choose a school that best fits their child. Now they have that option.”
When Abbott ran for reelection in 2022, he “promised school choice for the families of Texas,” he said. “Today, we delivered on that promise.”
The bill creates the state’s first Education Savings Account program to provide taxpayer-funded subsidies for primarily low-income families of roughly $10,000 per student.
Both the Texas Senate and House budgets allocate $1 billion for the program to support roughly 100,000 students, prioritizing low-income and special needs students, The Center Square reported. The savings accounts can be used by parents to send their children to the school of their choice, including private schools.
For more than 20 years, Democrats and Texas House Republicans have opposed a taxpayer-funded subsidy to allow families to send their child to a private school of their choice, arguing funds would be taken away from public schools and that taxpayer money should not fund private school education.
While the Texas Senate has passed a bill creating an Education Savings Account for several legislative sessions in a row, the bill always died in the Republican-controlled House – until now.
The tide turned after Abbott campaigned for 16 House Republican candidates who challenged incumbents who opposed a bill he championed in the last legislative session. Another five Republicans who opposed the bill didn’t run for reelection last year. Abbott’s endorsed Republican challengers won their primaries and runoff elections, vowing to vote for the state’s first ESA program.
The tide also turned after the Texas House elected a new speaker, state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who vowed that the ESA bill would pass the House, which it did on April 17. Burrows also traveled with Abbott statewide promoting the bill, pledging multiple times on social media that it would pass, The Center Square reported.
Burrows thanked members of the Texas House for voting for the bill, saying, “they knew school choice was the moral thing to do. They knew it was the right thing to give children opportunities to go to the place that it’s in their best interest. They knew it was the principled thing to do, that competition makes all things better. That is what America was founded upon. I do believe the work is not done. We have to make sure this is not only the biggest school choice [program] in history but the best.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This article reports on the signing of a school choice bill by Texas Governor Greg Abbott and provides context about the political dynamics surrounding the legislation. The tone and framing lean slightly toward a center-right perspective, reflecting the Republican-supportive language and pro-school choice stance. Terms like “woke agenda” and emphasis on parental empowerment and education freedom suggest a viewpoint aligned with conservative or center-right values. The article highlights Republican efforts and successes in passing the bill while presenting opposition from Democrats and some Republicans as obstacles. However, the piece primarily reports on the actions and statements of political figures and does not adopt an explicitly ideological perspective independent of those sources, maintaining a focus on factual recounting of events and political positions with mild ideological shading toward the conservative viewpoint.
SUMMARY: The Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 NBA draft lottery with a 1.8% chance and hold the first pick, likely selecting Duke star Cooper Flagg, a highly touted one-and-done forward. This selection is crucial following the mid-season trade of Luka Doncic to the Lakers and Kyrie Irving’s ACL recovery. The draft’s first round starts June 25 at 7 p.m. CDT on ABC and ESPN. Other notable prospects include Texas guard Tre Johnson, projected fifth to Utah Jazz, and Rutgers guard Dylan Harper, expected second to San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs have two first-round picks, focusing on promising talent, including French prospect Joan Beringer.
www.kxan.com – Ford McCracken – 2025-06-17 13:38:00
SUMMARY: The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide if a high-level nuclear waste storage facility can be built in West Texas. Texas and Fasken Oil sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to block the temporary site, arguing federal law requires waste to remain onsite at reactors unless a permanent facility exists. Interim Storage Partners, seeking to build the site, counters the law doesn’t ban temporary storage. Currently, nuclear waste is stored at reactors due to the absence of a federal site, raising concerns about safety, transport risks, and the site’s proximity to West Texas oil fields. The debate highlights tensions between nuclear energy expansion and safety.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has requested a new execution date for Robert Roberson, who was convicted in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, originally ruled a shaken baby case. Roberson, who maintains his innocence, argues new scientific evidence undermines the diagnosis. His 2023 execution was delayed after lawmakers subpoenaed him to testify, triggering a legal standoff. Paxton took over the case from the local DA and has pushed forward despite ongoing appeals. Roberson’s attorneys argue that recent expert findings and overturned shaken baby cases merit a new trial, not a rush to execution.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday requested a new execution date for Robert Roberson, the East Texas man whose execution was delayed last year after his case became a political lightning rod that shook up the state’s judicial system.
Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki, who was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome. He has maintained his innocence over two decades on death row, arguing that new scientific evidence debunks Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis and shows that she died of severe illness worsened by prescribed medications that are no longer given to children.
Roberson faced an October execution date last year, but state lawmakers — some persuaded of his innocence and others convinced that the courts had not properly considered his appeals — managed to force a delay after subpoenaing Roberson to testify at a House committee meeting scheduled a few days after his execution date.
That triggered a separation of powers conflict between the state executive and legislative branches, leading to a Texas Supreme Court order that temporarily paused Roberson’s execution.
Paxton’s office took over the case in June after Anderson County District Attorney Allyson Mitchell requested it — an unusual move, according to a criminal defense attorney who requested anonymity because they are employed by the state.
Paxton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why he is requesting a new execution date and why he took over for Mitchell.
The attorney general’s office generally does not have prosecutorial power in state court on criminal cases, unless a local prosecutor requests their involvement. That typically happens when prosecutors have a conflict of interest or lack the resources or expertise to handle a particular case.
But Mitchell had been deeply engaged in Roberson’s case for the past several years. Mitchell handled an evidentiary hearing for Roberson’s case in 2021, sought his October execution date and litigated his appeals. She also testified before a House panel last year to answer questions about the case.
Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I have never heard of the AG taking over a state court representation after the local DA’s office has been handling the case for years,” Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, said. “The AG’s office has not been involved in this case and plainly does not know the case in light of all of the shocking misrepresentations that were made in filings and press releases by that office when state lawmakers sought to use their subpoena power to hear from Robert directly.”
After Roberson’s execution was delayed last year, Paxton continued to insist that the sentence should be carried out, and he blocked a second attempt by House lawmakers to bring Roberson to the Capitol for testimony. The attorney general’s office also put out a graphic press release maintaining Roberson’s guilt and accusing the House committee of pursuing “eleventh-hour, one-sided, extrajudicial stunts that attempt to obscure the facts and rewrite his past.”
In response to Paxton’s request Monday — the state’s first move since the Texas Supreme Court delayed Roberson’s execution — a judge could set his new execution date for no sooner than three months from now.
In an objection filed Tuesday, Roberson’s attorneys argued that the district court was barred from scheduling a new execution date while Roberson has a pending appeal and “if additional proceedings are necessary.”
Roberson filed a new appeal in February that includes new expert opinions finding that Nikki’s shaken baby diagnosis was unsound and that the autopsy that concluded her death was a homicide was flawed. Those conclusions support other medical and forensic opinions presented in Roberson’s previous appeals, which were repeatedly denied.
“Robert Roberson is innocent,” Sween said. “The AG’s unjustified rush to seek an execution date while that new evidence of innocence is before the court is outrageous.”
Roberson’s appeal also cites an October decision by Texas’ top criminal court overturning the conviction of another man in a shaken baby case out of Dallas County. That decision recognized that the scientific consensus around shaken baby diagnoses had changed over the last two decades. Roberson’s attorneys called that case “materially indistinguishable” from Roberson’s.
Legislation this session to bolster the state’s junk science law, which lawmakers and advocates argued was not being properly applied by the courts in Roberson’s case and others, died in the Senate after winning broad approval in the House. The junk science law, which Roberson tried repeatedly to use to win a new trial, is meant to provide justice in criminal cases whose convictions rest on since-discredited science.
“Legislators across the entire political spectrum are certain Robert didn’t get a full and fair trial,” state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, who chaired the House panel that led the effort to give Roberson a new trial, said in a statement to the Tribune. “Many of us believe he’s innocent. What I know is that we’re no closer to truth or fairness today than we were one year ago — all we’ve added to this is politics, which should never have any role in our justice system.”
Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O’Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The article presents a detailed account of a contentious legal and political issue in Texas with a focus on defense arguments and legislative concerns about judicial fairness. It emphasizes the potential wrongful conviction and critiques of state officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, while highlighting opposition perspectives and the role of changing scientific consensus. The coverage tends to align more with perspectives critical of tough-on-crime stances and raises questions about due process, which is characteristic of center-left media that prioritize criminal justice reform and governmental accountability. However, the article maintains a factual tone without overt partisan language or clear ideological advocacy, reflecting a generally balanced but moderately progressive viewpoint.
