Instead of attending family barbecues or local parades, Texas state representatives spent Memorial Day on the floor of the House scrambling their way through a long list of controversial priority bills like Senate Bill 13, which would further empower parents and school boards to review school libraries’ books for “indecent or profane” content. After about two hours of debate on that measure, Representative Gene Wu, the Democratic Caucus chair, felt like he was “taking crazy pills,” he said.
“I think the vast majority of Texans would watch us during this debate and go, ‘What is going on there?’” Wu said “There’s thousands of other problems in our world right now that need addressing.”
The Texas House spent the long holiday weekend—which came ahead of the final Tuesday deadline for passage of Senate bills—taking up several bills on Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick’s priority agenda. Many of which, including SB 13, were part of the Texas GOP’s larger crusade to impose cultural conservatism on all facets of public education. Among the legislation passed by the Republican majority were a bill to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in K-12 schools, to require every Texas public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments, and to increase political control over the programming and curriculum of public universities.
