Posts Tagged ‘Bryan Hughes’

Texas Senate Committee Passes Ban On Teaching Critical Race Theory

Thursday, May 20th, 2021

In a followup to last week’s story about the Texas House passing a similar bill, a Texas Senate committee also passed a ban on teaching Critical Race Theory. And they even made it better:

When state Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) introduced his bill to stem the teaching of critical race theory in Texas classrooms, he accepted almost two dozen amendments by Democrats that heaped a host of figures and documents onto the bill’s list of required reading to understand the nation’s founding.

After the bill passed the state House and then jumped to the Senate, the State Affairs Committee stripped these amendments away.

On Monday, Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) introduced a committee substitute — a changed version of a bill — nearly identical to Toth’s original version, House Bill (HB) 3979. In fact, the text of the committee substitute is a carbon copy of Toth’s Senate companion bill, carried by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), which the Senate already passed.

This may seem like a lot of hugger mugger, but passing an amended version of the House’s bill makes it easier for the legislation to pass without a conference committee if the House accepts the senate changes.

While committee substitutes are a common stage in the life of bills, this bill’s committee substitute is notable for confirming a suspicion of some Democrats in the House, who asked Toth if the Senate would slough away their amendments. Toth said he bore no responsibility for the Senate’s actions. Ultimately, his acceptance of the amendments gained no Democratic support in the final House vote on the bill.

Snip.

As some critics noted in the State Affairs Committee hearing, the bill does not mention critical race theory explicitly. Rather, one part of the bill forbids teachers from pushing certain tenets of critical theory as it has been distilled and popularized. Examples include the notion that meritocracy is racist or prejudiced, or that certain racial groups bear collective guilt or responsibility.

Here are the eight concepts that teachers, administrators, and other school employees would not be able to require or make part of a course:

  • one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
  • an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
  • an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race or sex;
  • members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex;
  • an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by the individual’s race or sex;
  • an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
  • an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race or sex; or
  • meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race.
  • Parents of all races, creeds and colors have come together to reject the radical racism of critical race theory, and now Texas is rejecting at the state level.

    Texas Primary Runoff Results

    Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

    A few quick results from last night’s runoffs:

  • Wayne Christian defeated Gary Gates in the Republican Railroad Commissioner’s runoff, despite Gates dropping considerable money into a dishonest, scorched earth direct mailer campaign against Christian. That makes Gates 0-7 running for office.
  • Wayne Christian will face Democrat Grady Yarbrough (as well as Libertarian Mark Miller and Green Party candidate Martina Salinas) in November.
  • Mary Lou Keel defeated Ray Wheless and Scott Walker (not that Scott Walker) defeated Brent Webster in Republican Court of Criminal Appeals runoffs. Keel will face Republican-turned-Democrat incumbent Lawrence Meyers in November, while Walker will face Democrat Betsy Johnson.
  • Bryan Hughes stomped David Simpson in the Texas Senate District 1 race. Hughes was backed by both Ted Cruz and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. Hughes has no Democratic Party opposition in November.
  • In Williamson County runoffs, Laura Barker defeated Warren Oliver Waterman for County Court at Law #2 and Landy Warren defeated Donna Parker for County Commissioner Precinct 1. Warren will face Democrat Terry Cook in November, while Baker faces no Democratic Party opponent.
  • Bryan Hughes Drops Out of Texas Speaker’s Race and Endorses David Simpson

    Monday, December 10th, 2012

    This is big news. Rep. Bryan Hughes has dropped his bid to be Speaker of the Texas house of Representatives and has endorsed Rep. David Simpson in his run against incumbent speaker Joe Straus.

    While conservatives wanted to see Straus replaced, they was worry that Hughes’ background as a trial lawyer could work against him, and there was also worry that Simpson would split the anti-Straus vote. With Hughes out and endorsing Simpson, conservatives now have their best chance ever to oust Straus.

    Expect to hear more about the Speaker’s race in the near future.