State of Texas: 'School choice' plan poised to pass after runoff wins for Abbott-backed candidates
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State of Texas: ‘School choice’ plan poised to pass after runoff wins for Abbott-backed candidates

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Gov. Greg Abbott is declaring victory in his 18-month-long fight for a school choice initiative, which would allocate state money to help families pay for private or homeschooling expenses. His primary challengers against skeptical Republican lawmakers were largely successful, and he appears to now have a majority in the House to pass his priority.

“The Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass School Choice,” said Abbott on social media Tuesday night. “Congratulations to all of tonight‘s winners. Together, we will ensure the best future for our children.”

Abbott faced opposition to his ‘education savings account’ (ESA) program from every Democrat and 21 Republicans in the House. Most of the Republican opposition came from rural lawmakers who have few private schools in their district, citing concerns the program may reduce public school funding.

But Abbott gave them an ultimatum: vote for the bill, or face a challenger funded by his massive campaign war chest. He ultimately defeated 11 out of the 15 incumbents he challenged by endorsing their opponents.

“This is a huge win for families,” said Valeria Gurr of the American Federation for Children. “A school choice program gives them access to be able to meet their needs and their dreams and to be able to succeed.”

AFC’s political action committee spent $2 million to support pro-ESA candidates.

Meanwhile, opponents to the idea remain defiant. State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, and former public school teacher, echoes his caucus’ stance that no form of school vouchers will be acceptable regardless of the circumstances. He blamed the influence of Texas megadonors Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.

“They bought the Governor in the voucher fight,” he said. “Then, they flooded Texas with lies about pro-public education Republicans… despite the onslaught of money and lies, anti-voucher Republicans still won across the state. Where Abbott’s big money did succeed, his handpicked candidates are so extreme that they could help Democrats flip competitive seats.”

Lawmakers will return for the 89th legislative session in January 2025.

The final composition of the House is still uncertain, with only a handful of competitive races in November, and the all-important race for House Speaker to be decided by members in January.

Current House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, held off challenger David Covey in the runoff race in his southeast Texas district. Phelan overcame an effort to push him out of office that included former President Donald Trump, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigning against him.

Two House members have already announced plans to challenge Phelan for Speaker. Cypress Republican Tom Oliverson jumped in the race in March, a few weeks after Phelan failed to win enough votes in the primary election to avoid a runoff. Oliverson was once a Phelan ally, and the Speaker appointed him to chair the House insurance committee.

Last week, Rep. Shelby Slawson, R-Stephenville, announced that she was jumping into the race. She was the lead House sponsor of legislation passed in 2021 that banned most abortions in Texas. Slawson is serving her second term in the Texas House.

Texas Supreme Court rejects case claiming abortion restrictions put women in medical danger

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday unanimously ruled against plaintiffs in Zurawski v. Texas, a case brought by more than 20 women alleging the state’s abortion ban puts women with pregnancy complications at risk. The state’s highest civil court vacated a Travis County trial court’s ruling that blocked the state from enforcing the law against doctors.

The challenge was led by Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who nearly died from septic shock from pregnancy complications after her doctor told her state law does not allow her to provide an abortion.

The court held that the medical exceptions in Texas’ abortion ban are sufficiently broad, and do not require doctors to allow their patients to approach death before intervening.

“A physician who tells a patient, ‘Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,’ and in the same breath states ‘but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances’ is simply wrong in that legal assessment,” the court wrote.

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The ruling evoked emotional reactions from many of the plaintiffs and their doctors who believed the law tied their hands.

“Today feels like I’m reliving my child’s diagnosis,” said Kaitlyn Kash, whose child was diagnosed in the womb with skeletal dysplasia, a deadly genetic disorder. “If you want to grow your family, if you want to have children, you should definitely get out of Texas.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the ruling on Friday. He initiated the Supreme Court’s review by asking them to overturn the trial court’s injunction.

“I will continue to defend the laws enacted by the Legislature and uphold the values of the people of Texas by doing everything in my power to protect mothers and babies,” he said.

The Texas Alliance for Life, after submitting a brief to the court in support of the abortion ban, praised the ruling Friday.

“The Texas Supreme Court justices understand that their role is to look at the law and interpret it – not make the law,” Alliance for Life’s Amy O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell also said the doctors who believed they could not provide medical abortions misinterpreted the law and put their patients at risk, pointing to 81 cases in which doctors performed medical abortions through Dec. 2023 without consequences.

“Clearly, we see doctors in Texas know that they can intervene, while at the same time we hear cases where some doctors are confused about the clarity and the language of her law,” O’Donnell said. “For that reason, we are in support of the Texas Medical Board providing guidelines for doctors.”

Dallas Congressman and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Colin Allred condemned the ruling, pledging to advocate for abortion access nationwide if elected.

“To force someone to carry out a nonviable pregnancy – at risk to her own life – is outrageous. This decision allows Texas’ extreme abortion ban to continue to endanger women and deny them the health care they need,” Allred said. “This ban has gone way too far, and in the Senate, I will fight to restore the freedoms of Texas women.”

The Court’s ruling also provides insight into a similar challenge from Kate Cox, a Dallas woman who asserts her life and future fertility was put at risk when she could not abort a fetus diagnosed with Trisomy-18. Many of those pregnancies result in miscarriage and a majority of the babies who are born with the genetic disorder die before their first birthday, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“The current law… plainly does not permit abortion based solely on a diagnosis that an
unborn child has an abnormal condition, even a life-limiting one,” the court wrote. “Rather, the law examines such a diagnosis in the context of the mother’s physical health. An unborn child’s diagnosis must be coupled with reasonable medical judgment that the mother has a life-threatening physical condition and that an abortion is indicated to avert her death or serious physical impairment.”

The Texas Medical Board is currently looking at proposed rules to clarify when doctors can legally perform an abortion. In March, the board put out proposed guidelines to define what qualifies as an emergency medical exception. The board heard public testimony last month, where several doctors and patients criticized the proposal as too vague.

The board could put their proposal up for a vote for approval and implementation, or issue a revised proposal. The board is scheduled to meet later in June.

Texas releases new, state-owned textbooks aimed to improve student outcomes

Wednesday morning, the Texas Education Agency released a new set of state-owned and developed textbooks aimed at increasing student outcomes called Open Education Resources, or OER, textbooks. State legislators directed the agency to develop the material during the last legislative session as part of House Bill 1605, and it’s already been tested in multiple school districts.

The legislation was passed during the last regular session amid a growing effort to ban books that some parents considered inappropriate from schools and public libraries across the state. The law also requires the State Board of Education to curate a list of state-approved instructional materials for school districts. The board announced Wednesday that it will start hearing from the public on more than 140 textbooks that have already been submitted for approval.

In a statement, Gov. Greg Abbott said TEA’s new educational materials would help students “better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution.”

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Although the legislature directed TEA to create these educational materials, school districts are not required to use the textbooks or any materials the state board approves. However, districts that use the materials will receive additional state funding — up to $40 per student — and employment protections for teachers who use them in their classrooms.

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According to HB 1605, teachers who use materials approved by the state board of education cannot face disciplinary action for complaints related to teaching “widely debated” or “currently controversial issues of public policy.”

The OER textbooks have already been used on multiple Texas campuses as a part of a pilot program, including schools within Temple Independent School District. Pilot districts and teachers who used the materials also provided feedback and proposed changes.

According to Education Commissioner Mike Morath and Temple ISD Superintendent Bobby Ott, after the first full year using the OER textbooks, Temple ISD saw “double-digit gains” in the percentage of students reading on grade level. Morath said lower-performing students in the pilot program made the strongest gains.

“Low-income students are moving up much faster, to a point where they that if the trends continue, they will catch up and there will no longer be achievement gaps by race or by class, in the schools,” Morath said.

The agency published two OER textbooks, one focusing on K-5 reading and language arts and the other on K-8 algebra and math.

Morath said during the pilot program, school districts rolled out the OER textbooks over three years — starting on a small scale — swapping out the instructional materials for an entire campus and then district-wide in the following year.

Education advocates, like Monty Exter of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, said some teachers are concerned that “OER will take away the thing they love most about their profession: the actual teaching.”

Meanwhile, Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Greg Sindelar called the new instructional materials “a game changer” for stagnant student achievement.

Morath said many people were involved in helping create the OER textbooks, including a 10-person advisory board that includes former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson and UT Austin Department of Special Education Professor Dr. Sharon Vaughn. The advisory board also includes Dr. Thomas Lindsey of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, former Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr., and Dr. Andrea Ramirez, a National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference Committee member.

“There’s no such thing as a silver bullet in public education; you still need very skilled teachers who love kids and know their content,” Morath said. “But if you’re starting from this, this set of instructional materials, you’re starting from a very strong foundation.”

Others are skeptical.

State Representative Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) serves on the House Public Education Committee. After Wednesday’s announcement, she posted criticism on the social media platform X.

“Every single teacher org testified against this canned curriculum,” Hinojosa wrote. She added, “teachers are professionals & need the freedom to adjust teaching daily to meet the needs of students.”

Tricia Cave with the Association of Texas Professional Educators echoed concerns that the OER could take flexibility and creativity away from teachers.

“The concern isn’t necessarily the materials themselves. The concern is what this means beyond just a curriculum and saying that we don’t need to teach teachers how to teach that we can just hand them something and say, do this,” Cave said.

“Teachers aren’t robots. Kids aren’t widgets,” Cave added.

Woman who caused St. David’s hospital crash was impaired, autopsy shows

The woman who drove into St. David’s North Austin Medical Center in February, killing herself and seriously injuring at least five others, had a blood-alcohol level between three and four times the legal limit to drive, along with the chemical compounds of cannabis found in her system, according to an autopsy report released Thursday in response to a KXAN public records request.

Michelle Holloway, 57, died from “blunt head trauma,” according to the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office, which lists the manner of death as an “accident.” She suffered skull and rib fractures and brain bleeding.

Toxicology results found between 0.25% and 0.30% of ethanol in Holloway’s system, which a doctor, criminal defense attorney, and law enforcement tell KXAN is the same as a person’s blood-alcohol content. That was confirmed by the medical examiner’s office on Friday. The autopsy said tests for cannabinoid came back “presumptively positive.”

St. David’s declined to comment.

KXAN requested the autopsy report, along with other records from the crash, to better understand how it occurred. Requests for 911 calls and police body camera video were denied citing the “investigation, or prosecution of an open or pending criminal matter.”

An Austin police spokesperson later said the investigation into the crash is “contingent” on the “pending autopsy and toxicology results.” On Thursday, KXAN sent a copy of the autopsy report to APD asking about the status of the case now. We have not yet heard back. APD also did not immediately comment on the amounts found in Holloway’s system and whether that may have led to the Feb. 13 crash.

The day after the crash, APD said there was no evidence it was intentional nor the result of a medical episode.

New bollards installed at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center (Courtesy Howry, Breen & Herman)

According to a more than $1 million lawsuit filed by the Bernard family against St. David’s HealthCare, Holloway arrived at the hospital with her niece to visit a sick family member. According to the lawsuit, Holloway, a passenger, was asked to move the 2016 white Acura TLX, which was parked at the hospital’s north entrance. The lawsuit alleges Holloway was “unfamiliar” with the car and “accidentally lost control,” crashing into the “vulnerable and unprotected” ER entrance and into the lobby, running over and seriously injuring all four members of the Bernard family, including their two toddlers. The youngest went through the car’s windshield and received hundreds of stitches.

The Austin family’s lawsuit accuses the hospital of “gross negligence” for not having any vertical security posts, called bollards, arguing that could have stopped the car and prevented the deadly crash from happening.

“The safety of our patients and their families, as well as our employees and visitors, is always our top priority,” St. David’s HealthCare previously said in a statement, adding, per policy, “we do not comment on pending claims or litigation.” 

KXAN began looking into hospital safety after the crash. We found St. David’s North Austin Medical Center did not have bollards at its ER entrance prior to the crash despite having them at some of its other medical facilities. Afterward, the hospital installed a dozen, including five that appear to have been added after KXAN’s investigation.

KXAN investigators visited 34 major area hospitals with emergency rooms across Central Texas. We found 18 hospitals had bollards, nine had partial coverage and seven had none.

Our recent investigation revealed hundreds of similar crashes across the country in the past decade that could have been avoided with crash-rated bollards, according to experts. KXAN investigators traveled to Texas A&M Transportation Institute near College Station to watch crash-tests and see, firsthand, how effective they can be at stopping the equivalent of a Dodge Ram pickup truck traveling 20 miles per hour.

After our reporting, state and local policymakers are now looking at the possibility of requiring crash-rated bollards at medical facilities. Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, citing KXAN’s investigation, said she will introduce a resolution on July 18 “requiring safety barriers, known as bollards, to be constructed at any new medical facility” in the city. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes’ office said “she would be glad to co-sponsor” that.

The day after the crash, St. David’s credited a large lobby fish tank for absorbing the impact and saving lives.

“I thank God for intervening there and giving us that protection,” said St. David’s North Chief Medical Officer Dr. Peter DeYoung said.

“I wish it was thanking God that there were bollards in front of the building,” said Levi Bernard, who was injured in the crash. “Not the thing that attracted us to the center of the lobby.”

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