Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, October 23, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Higher Ed Rule Will (Finally) Ban In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens

• Yesterday, a committee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recommended the adoption of new rules that will prohibit public colleges and universities from providing tuition subsidies to individuals not lawfully present in the United States. As Adam Cahn reports, the full board will vote on these changes later today.
      
• Under the new rules, all applicants for resident tuition status must prove their lawful presence in the U.S. as defined by federal law.
      
• The rule change was necessary to implement a consent agreement Texas reached with the federal government in June. Under that legal decree, Texas is prohibited from providing preferential tuition rates to illegal aliens.

UT-Austin Outranks Texas A&M in 2025 National Conservative College Rankings

• On a new ranking of universities, the University of Texas at Austin placed second in the nation and Texas A&M came in fourth. As Robert Montoya explains, the rankings compare the institutions' conservative values.
      
• City Journal looked at 100 universities and considered a variety of factors, including institutional leadership, educational experience, and student life. UT-Austin earned high marks for resisting politicization, quality of education, and commitment to meritocracy. Texas A&M earned a high score, in part, because of the “Student Experience.”
      
• The only two other Texas schools considered in the ranking were Baylor and Rice, ranking 23rd and 60th, respectively. The University of Austin, founded in 2021, wasn’t ranked but earned a notable mention in part because it “has no Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) infrastructure.”

Trump Nominates State Sen. Brian Birdwell as Assistant Secretary of Defense

• President Donald Trump has nominated Republican State Sen. Brian Birdwell of Granbury for the role of assistant secretary of defense. As Sydnie Henry reports, Birdwell had announced in the summer that he was not seeking reelection. 
     
• A survivor of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, Birdwell endured 39 surgeries in his recovery and later co-founded a nonprofit supporting wounded servicemembers. He was first elected to the Texas Senate in 2010.
      
• As the assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, Birdwell's role would be focused on overseeing logistics, maintenance, and readiness across the armed forces.

Illegal Aliens Detained by A.G.'s Criminal Investigative Division

• Attorney General Ken Paxton announced yesterday that his Criminal Investigations Division has detained and turned over for deportation 35 illegal aliens. 
      
• The arrests were carried out under the framework of a Section 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agreement allows trained state law enforcement personnel to perform immigration officer functions that include verifying immigration status, issuing detainers, and processing individuals for removal under federal law.
      
• "Every illegal must be found, detained, and deported. The invasion of illegal aliens encouraged by the Biden Administration represented one of the greatest threats to national sovereignty in our history." – Ken Paxton

Texas' Data Center Boom—and the Local Backlash

• Data centers are surging in number around Texas—oftentimes to opposition from local residents. As Paige Feild reports, state officials must confront the high costs of serving data center companies while protecting local communities and resources.
     
• Even with factors such as water usage and electricity demands drawing concerns from residents, local government officials are using big tax incentives to entice data center companies to their communities. These deals are made in the hope of securing job creation and property tax revenue, but costs and benefits are proving difficult to weigh.

Taxpayer-Backed NRG Power Plant Awarded Additional Tax Break

• In addition to a $215 million taxpayer-backed low-interest loan from the Texas Energy Fund, NRG Energy Inc. is also going to receive a property tax break from the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.
      
• The natural gas power plant is projected to provide 456 megawatts of power when it comes online.
      
• For a separate project in the Houston area, NRG Energy has been approved for a half-billion-dollar loan from the Texas Energy Fund. That natural gas project will generate 721 megawatts when it is completed.

Texas Teacher Gets Life Sentence for Sexually Abusing Students

• Erin Anderson reports that a Texas elementary school teacher who sexually abused multiple students during his 20-year career will spend the rest of his life in prison. 
     
• Andrew Hanson Palmore was teaching in the Hays Consolidated Independent School District until 2022, when a child accused him of sexual abuse. During the course of the investigation, other victims were located from Palmore's time teaching in Austin ISD.
     
• State records show Palmore was first certified to teach elementary school in 2000.

Quote-Unquote

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

– Ronald Reagan​

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