The Texas Report 8/25

The Texas Report 8/25

What’s Happening:

• Former Texas Governor Rick Perry on suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton (More here)

• ERCOT calls for energy conservation (More here)

• Seven school districts sue Texas Education Agency over A-F ratings

• 100 Texas chaplains sign letter encouraging school districts to not let chaplains aid in student mental health care (More here)

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry on suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday, former (and longest-serving) Texas Governor Rick Perry weighed in on the upcoming impeachment trial for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Perry begins by acknowledging the "shocking" effort by "some Republicans through a coordinated effort of texts, emails and social-media posts—working to delegitimize the impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Ken Paxton."

He calls the current impeachment process legitimate and says that Texans should be praising the majority of House Republicans who followed their oath to uphold the Constitution and voted for a full investigation and trial regarding the allegations of wrongdoing by Paxton.

Perry doesn't specifically weigh in on whether Ken Paxton should be impeached. However, he goes out of his way to defend Paxton's former senior advisors, later turned whistleblowers after allegedly witnessing abuse of office by the AG.

In Perry's eyes, "choosing to disregard your inner circle's advice is a red flag. It shows bad judgment in a leader. But bad judgment alone isn't impeachable—unless it involves breaking the law or abuse of office. That is what we all want to discover through this trial."

Ever since news of the investigation into Paxton broke out towards the end of the 88th Regular session. Specific conservative advocacy groups (mainly through Empower Texans) have spent significant resources to try and mislead/mischaracterize the impeachment of Paxton as led by corrupt Republicans in the Texas House.

As was recently reported in The Texas Tribune, they've paid conservative influencers to post nearly identical messaging attacking the impeachment but without disclosure so it appears authentic.

Across the state, Republican voters have received text messages encouraging them to call their Senators and throw out all impeachment charges.

We're less than two weeks away from Paxton's impeachment trial, and his allies don't appear to be stopping in their quest to attempt and distract/confuse Republican voters around what's happening in Austin. Whatever happens, Governor Perry believes that a full trial needs to take place, allowing both sides to air out the facts of the case.

ERCOT calls for conservation

Yesterday, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) asked Texans to conserve electricity Thursday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. as operating reserves were low for several hours.

ERCOT asked all government agencies to implement all programs to reduce energy at their facilities. The grid manager said it was not experiencing emergency conditions, but the forecasts showed high potential to enter emergency operations.

ERCOT works with out-of-state Independent System Operators (ISOs) and Market Participants to obtain additional power generation capacity. ERCOT set a new, all-time, unofficial peak demand record of 85,435 MW on Aug. 10. In 2022, the August peak demand was 78,465 MW.

So far this summer, ERCOT has set 10 new all-time peak demand records. Last summer, it set 11, with a high of 80,148 MW on July 20. The state is currently on a weather watch through Sunday with the expected higher temperatures.

Yesterday, Ron Nirenberg, the Mayor of San Antonio, said that the city needed to be prepared for potential rolling outages. Nirenberg pointed the finger at ERCOT for the tight grid conditions and said the possibility of rolling outages (which didn't happen) had nothing to do with the city's municipally owned utility.

ERCOT stated low wind generation was partially to blame for Thursday's scare. Still, its data showed lower-than-usual thermal generation — like traditional coal and natural gas plants — was also partially to blame.

Earlier this summer, Pablo Vegas, ERCOT's president and CEO, told San Antonio reporters it's "very possible" that Texas will continue to break energy demand records this summer, but said he was not particularly concerned about meeting that demand. ERCOT has up to 97,000 megawatts of resource capacity available for peak summer load, according to its summer 2023 Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy.

Seven school districts sue Texas Education Agency over A-F ratings

Seven Texas school districts filed lawsuits Thursday challenging the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) rollout of changes to the A-F accountability system, which grades school district performance each year. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is named as the defendant.

Nick Maddox, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said a lot is at stake for school districts that do not get good grades. The state can intervene if a school district or one of its campuses gets a failing grade for five consecutive years.

For school districts that don't perform well, the state has the authority to come in and essentially take over the district. This is happening at Houston ISD, the state's largest school district, where TEA took control and recently installed a new superintendent and school board.

The lawsuit claims that districts receiving lower grades will also negatively impact enrollment. That, in turn, will reduce the amount of funding they receive from the state.

The primary change expected to lower districts' grades concerns how the TEA evaluates whether high schools are preparing students for life after graduation.

TEA is significantly raising the threshold districts must meet to earn an A regarding career, college, and military readiness. Before, districts could earn the top grade if 60% of students were considered career and college-ready. The TEA is now raising that threshold to 88% and will be applying it to students who graduate in 2022.

The superintendent of Del Valle ISD, one of the districts suing, said she has no problem meeting higher standards but is concerned the agency is applying updated standards retroactively.

"They've been long graduated. We have no ability to have them meet this threshold. And these are, by the way, also the same students who were most impacted by COVID," Annette Tielle said. "So they had interrupted instruction for [career and technical education], dual credit — there just were a lot of issues."

Del Valle ISD is one of nearly 250 school districts that sent a letter to Commissioner Morath earlier this year asking the state to pause its plan for the "A-F Accountability Refresh."

There's also concern among many public school advocates and legislators that the changes by TEA to the A-F system is happening to support state leadership initiative for school vouchers.

Maddox added that his schools are open to the new standard. Instead, they're arguing that schools didn't receive adequate notice about changes to the A-F system.

Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges Morath is violating this law by releasing the new standards too late — and applying them retroactively.

"We are asking ... the judge to interpret the statute to say: 'TEA you can't do this,'" he said. "You are able to change the rubric, but you can't do it now. You have to disclose it at the start of the school year."

Vouchers and public school funding will likely be part of an October Special Session that will be among the most contentious in several years. There are legislative rumors that a toned-down voucher deal is close to gaining enough support in the Texas House from the rural Republican caucus. Still, members aren't confident that the Governor will accept any toned-down version.

100 Texas chaplains sign letter encouraging school districts to not let chaplains aid in student mental health care

As we reported during the recent Texas Legislative session, legislation passed allowing public schools to create chaplaincy programs to provide mental health support to students (in place of school counselors).

On Tuesday, 100 chaplains signed a letter asking school districts to decline to use the legislation because they don't feel chaplains are qualified.

S.B. 763 by Senator Mayes Middleton does not require any training or qualifications to be a school chaplain. A prospective candidate must simply pass a background check.

The Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) also disagrees with the law.

"Professional standards and certifications exist for a very good reason, and this is one of them," said Kelsey Kling with the Texas AFT.

Districts will also have to decide if chaplains are paid or volunteers. If paid, the law allows schools to use school safety funds to compensate them. There is concern by some, including chaplains, about the separation of church and state, which Senator Middleton said "wasn't a real doctrine" during the legislative session.

The letter from the 100 chaplains points out that they "are not a replacement for school counselors or safety measures in our public schools." Additionally, there is concern that due to the legislation only requiring a background check, it will result in non-professional chaplains who lack formal theological education. (In addition to the qualifications to be a school counselor)

To be a licensed counselor in Texas requires the completion of a master's or doctoral degree in counseling or a counseling-related field from an accredited college or university.

"As you refer to the separation of church and state, that isn't an actual doctrine that was a letter from Jefferson to Danbury Baptist," Middleton said. "That wasn't a real doctrine. What is a real doctrine is the establishment clause."

How do you feel about this issue?

(Full Letter)