News from the South - Texas News Feed
Who Really Benefits from School Vouchers?
Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from Boulton’s written testimony against Senate Bill 2, which was heard in committee on January 28.
I am a former private school teacher, a 6th-generation Texan, a graduate of K-12 public education here in Texas, and the mother of three amazing public-school children and I oppose SB 2, legislation currently under consideration that would create publicly funded savings accounts for private schools. Though my husband makes a great living, well above the median income in Texas, we cannot afford private schools, which here in Austin would cost us around $90,000 per year. Were we to receive $10,000 per child, as proposed in SB 2, we would only be a third of the way to funding a private school tuition. Considering that 62 percent of public school students in Texas are economically disadvantaged, I am forced to wonder, Who is the real intended beneficiary of this bill?
I do not pretend to know the motivation of Jeff Yass, the billionaire libertarian who has contributed funds and pushed to get vouchers passed nationwide, including giving $12 million to our own governor in 2023 and 2024 alone. But I do know that Mr. Yass is not a Texan, and I also know that Texas is not for sale. Libertarians believe that education should be privatized. If that is the goal, can we have a bill doing that, rather than pretending the private school vouchers are about school choice or about serving students? The bill proposes a $10,000 payment per child, which I find interesting, considering that represents a 62 percent increase over the basic allotment that is currently given to each Texas student. If it costs $10,000 to educate a child, why have our schools been underfunded for years?
We know the answer to that question. We know who has refused to allow an increase in school funding, and it is our governor. Is the Texas governor’s plan to underfund education, then complain when it fails and demand privatization? We all know the system is not perfect, but that does not mean we need to slowly burn it to the ground in the guise of a voucher program.
According to Joshua Cowen, an author and a professor of education policy, for every dollar that voucher backers invest, they get about $100 in public money. That is an incredible return on their political investments. Perhaps that is the motivation: the desire to turn the second largest public school system into a private one, where the return on those investments would be absolutely enormous.
All Texans pay property taxes either directly to their county, or to their landlord with the taxes bundled into the price of their rent. Property taxes are what fund public education in Texas, which means that this discussion affects all Texans. I think that means all Texans should have a say in whether or not we allow public dollars to go to private schools. Republican Senator Brandon Creighton, who represents the upscale The Woodlands suburb in Houston, claims that “Texas voters have spoken loud and clear.” If there’s truly a consensus for vouchers, proponents should have put the matter to a vote by the people. You claim parents need a voice in our children’s education? Give us one. Please give us a voice. Change the law and put this measure on a ballot.
My biggest concern as a former private school teacher is that private schools owe their families nothing. There is no true oversight in a private school, no legal obligation to teach specific curricula, nor to hire qualified or certified teachers, nor to accept all students regardless of disabilities or other challenges. Why should they get public money without public oversight?
Do vouchers help kids? The data says no; in fact, research demonstrates the negative effects of these programs. If the Texas Legislature passes SB 2 and state education costs skyrocket, student outcomes plummet, and our public education crumbles, what happens next?
I originally wrote this to deliver at a Senate hearing on January 28, but I fear legislators are not listening. Senators gave only four days notice that they would hold that public hearing on SB 2. I was one of 330 people who signed up to testify. The hearing began at 9 a.m., but the committee didn’t begin to allow public speakers until nearly 3 p.m., and most people had left by then. Clearly, the Senate wants to push this through quickly.
I believe I speak for parents across Texas who oppose this. We will not forget who sold Texas, and our public education system, to Jeff Yass and Governor Abbott. I am urging legislators to say no to private school vouchers, or at the very least put the measure on a statewide ballot. Public education needs funding and reform, not annihilation. Billionaires are trying to silence the voices of Texans. Please do not let them.
News from the South - Texas News Feed
Austin police chief hopes to quell immigration concerns
SUMMARY: Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis addressed concerns about federal immigration operations in Austin, revealing that there is significant fear in the community. Following recent “enhanced targeted operations” by ICE, she emphasized that the Austin Police Department (APD) does not inquire about individuals’ immigration status during arrests. Davis reassured that ICE primarily targets those with violent felony warrants. Amid growing anxiety within local Hispanic communities, she encourages open dialogue between federal officials and residents to alleviate fears. Additionally, increased cooperation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and federal agencies aims to deport undocumented individuals with active warrants in Texas.
The post Austin police chief hopes to quell immigration concerns appeared first on www.kxan.com
News from the South - Texas News Feed
Gambling industry presses for Texas win over Senate opposition
Casino and sports betting companies press for a win in Texas despite Senate opposition
“Casino and sports betting companies press for a win in Texas despite Senate opposition” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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Undeterred by four years of sluggish progress and certain defeat at the Texas Capitol, the gambling industry is plodding ahead with its ambitious bid to legalize casinos and sports betting in a state with some of the most restrictive gaming laws in the country.
For the third straight session, the Las Vegas Sands casino empire has deployed a murderers’ row of high-powered lobbyists to coax the Republican-controlled Legislature into authorizing “destination resorts” with casino gambling in Texas’ largest cities.
Also part of the lobbying blitz is the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, a coalition of the state’s pro sports teams, racetracks and betting platforms — such as FanDuel and DraftKings — that is looking to extend its momentum from 2023, when a proposal to legalize online sports betting squeaked through the Texas House.
It was the furthest either chamber had gone toward loosening the state’s 169-year-old gambling restrictions. But it was also largely symbolic: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who runs the Texas Senate, immediately quashed the measure, citing his repeated claims that there is minimal support among the chamber’s GOP majority to expand gambling.
With the 74-year-old Patrick in office until January 2027 and vowing to seek another four-year term, supporters and opponents of gambling legalization have settled into a state of trench warfare in the House. It is a familiar playbook gaming industry leaders have used to legalize gambling in other states: patience and money, in large doses, until the breakthrough comes. In Texas, that means pursuing incremental wins until a base of support calcifies in the House, laying the groundwork for when the Senate is run by someone more sympathetic.
“The effort to bring destination resorts to Texas has received an overwhelming amount of support from Texans and lawmakers since it was first introduced, and the groundswell of momentum is only continuing to build,” Andy Abboud, Sands’ senior vice president of government relations, said in a statement. “Texans want to decide and vote on this issue, and we look forward to working with the legislature to give them that opportunity this session.”
Opponents include the Texas Republican Party, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, advocacy groups like Texans Against Gambling, and a litany of conservative activist organizations. While Patrick’s shared opposition virtually ensures nothing will make it out of the Legislature this session, the anti-gambling contingent still wants to prevent gaming interests from establishing a beachhead in the House.
“Sports gambling and casinos are economically regressive, scholarly studies show, because they produce nothing of external value,” the Texans Against Gambling group wrote on social media last week. “They do not spur long-term economic growth. Instead they hinder it. Keep Texas, Texas.”
The comment came days after Gov. Greg Abbott voiced guarded support for sports betting legalization, telling the Houston Chronicle, “I don’t have a problem” with such a proposal — echoing comments from 2023 when he told the USA TODAY Network he would not stand in the way.
Abbott’s comments generated a burst of excitement among sports betting advocates, paired with the release of a statewide poll from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs that found 60% of Texans support legalized sports betting, including 64% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans.
Still, sports betting legislation has yet to be filed in the House, and the author who carried the measure through the chamber two years ago, Republican Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano, told the Austin American-Statesman in December he did not plan to push his own legislation again unless the Senate moved first. Leach did not respond to a request for comment.
Karina Kling, a spokesperson for the Sports Betting Alliance, said the group expects legislation to be filed soon in the House. Lawmakers have until March 14, the 60th day of the session, to file most bills, including gambling measures.
The same University of Houston poll measured 73% support for legalizing “destination resort casinos” in Texas — a prospect for which Abbott has also signaled tentative support in recent years.
Statewide backing for casinos has consistently outpaced that for sports betting, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor who helped conduct the survey. Still, it was sports betting legislation that cleared the Texas House in 2023 with 101 votes, while the casino measure fell short with just 92 votes.
Texas’ gaming laws can be changed only by amending the state constitution, which requires two-thirds approval in both chambers — including the 150-member House — and support from a majority of voters on the statewide ballot. Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who carried the casino amendment in the lower chamber two years ago, did not respond to a request for comment about whether he planned to revive the effort again this session.
Jones said that for the handful of Republican lawmakers who voted for sports betting and against resort casinos, it likely came down to a belief that voters would have a more muted response to online sports betting, because it is not “physically present” in the same way as resort-style casinos and the “actual visuals of people engaged in gambling” there.
“I think, from a legislator’s perspective, for at least a subset, there was the belief that the blowback for voting for online sports betting is going to be more reduced than the blowback for voting for casinos,” Jones said.
Those who support online sports betting argue that many Texans are already betting illegally and spending millions of untaxed dollars that would otherwise generate revenue for the state. Legalizing and regulating the practice, they argue, would shield those users from risky, illicit markets.
The failed 2023 casino legislation would have authorized at least eight licenses for casino gambling at destination resorts across Texas, with preference for metro areas where horse-racing has already been authorized. Geren amended the bill to set aside 80% of casino tax revenue for teacher pay raises and cost-of-living adjustments for retired teachers.
But while supportive lawmakers touted the jobs and other economic benefits of casinos, opponents argued that casinos would lead to spikes in human trafficking, domestic violence and gambling addiction, bringing more trouble than it was worth. The measure was also bitterly opposed by the Eagle Pass-based Kickapoo Tribe, which is allowed under federal law to operate a casino offering bingo-based games, a notch below Las Vegas-style options like blackjack and roulette. Tribal leaders said the legislation would have wiped out their main source of revenue — guests from San Antonio — by diverting them to a new casino in the Alamo City.
Both sides of the gambling push in Texas — resort casinos and online sports betting — could face steeper odds this session, Jones said, with the ouster of several pro-gambling Republican incumbents who were replaced by hardline conservatives opposed to gaming measures.
And the House’s new leader, Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, opposed casino and sports betting legislation last session, while his predecessor, Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, had said he wanted to authorize “destination-style casinos that are high quality.”
Even if Burrows wanted to expand gambling, Jones said, the move would provide ammunition for his critics from the Texas GOP’s rightmost flank — most of whom oppose efforts to legalize casinos and online sports betting and are eager to challenge Burrows and his allies in next year’s primaries.
“The challenge will depend in part on the legislation that he passes and does not pass this session,” Jones said of Burrows. “So, strategically, it may not make a lot of sense for Burrows to bring online sports betting and casino gambling to the floor, because if he passes that legislation, that’s a potential liability in 2026.”
Thus far, the only gambling legalization measure has been filed by Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat who has penned similar legislation each session since she joined the Legislature in 2009. The proposal, like in past years, would impose a 15% tax on gross casino revenue and use it for public education, public safety and “responsible gaming” education for adults.
Though the measure is unlikely to go anywhere in the Patrick-led Senate, Alvarado said filing it gives her more excuses to evangelize about the tourism, conventions and other business that would flow in by way of the new high-end hotels.
“You do these things with the notion that we’re in for the long haul,” she said. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”
Disclosure: Rice University and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
News from the South - Texas News Feed
ICE continues to make major arrests in Texas, including cartel, gang members | Texas
SUMMARY: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have arrested multiple violent illegal border crossers, including members of the Gulf Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, during recent operations. Notable arrests include a Cartel del Golfo member identified as a sicario leader and a Tren de Aragua member suspected of attempted murder. Additionally, various other foreign nationals with serious criminal backgrounds were apprehended, including an MS-13 gang member. HSI emphasizes their commitment to public safety and urges the public to report suspicious activities, as they target individuals who pose significant threats to communities.
The post ICE continues to make major arrests in Texas, including cartel, gang members | Texas appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com
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