Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Paxton Files Healthcare Fraud Suits Over Cross-Sex Hormones for Kids

• A legal offensive has been launched by Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing two North Texas physicians of breaking Texas law and defrauding taxpayers through the state’s Medicaid program. As Sydnie Henry reports, Drs. May Lau and M. Brett Cooper allegedly provided illegal “gender transition” drugs to minors.
     
• Paxton's office is seeking to force the doctors to repay the money and face steep civil penalties for what the attorney general has described as “cruel child abuse” carried out at public expense.
      
• The doctors were first sued a year ago for violating Texas' ban on gender mutilation procedures being performed on minors.
      
• According to Paxton’s office, new evidence finds Lau and Cooper did not simply violate the treatment ban—they also worked to conceal it from the state’s healthcare system. The pair allegedly falsified medical records to have Texas taxpayers pay for the services.

Texas GOP Urges Ban on School Board Association Lobbying

• In a strongly worded rebuke, the Republican Party of Texas is condemning the Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators. As Brandon Waltens reports, the GOP accuses both groups of "interference, intimidation, and monopolistic practices."
       
• According to a resolution unanimously approved by the State Republican Executive Committee, conservative school board members have been "subjected to coercive tactics" and isolated when challenging policy positions.
     
• Among other things, the resolution criticizes TASB’s role in the statewide insurance and risk-management marketplace, describing the association as acting like a "virtual monopoly." The party also accuses TASB-retained attorneys of undermining elected officials' oversight and violating open meetings requirements.
      
• The GOP is calling on state lawmakers to prohibit any public funds from flowing to either group and to "break the TASB monopoly by deregulating the public-school insurance and risk-management marketplace."
      
• TASB responded by describing the party's characterizations as "inflammatory" and inaccurate, claiming to provide "high-value, high-quality services."

Houston ISD Settles Lawsuit Alleging Officials Socially Transitioned Student

• The Houston Independent School District has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of a student at Bellaire High School. They alleged that school employees repeatedly referred to their daughter as a boy despite explicit instructions to use her legal name and pronouns reflecting her biological sex. Michael Wilson has the details.
      
• The dispute began when Terry and Sarah Osborn discovered schoolwork showing teachers had been calling their daughter by a male name. According to the family, the practice started in her freshman year and continued into her junior year—even after the parents told school employees to use her given name.
      
• As part of the legal agreement, Houston ISD will instruct all Bellaire staff to refer to the student by her legal name or a nickname derived from that name. They will also refer to her by female pronouns for as long as she is a minor and enrolled in the district.

Plano ISD Sued for Failing To Disclose School Mold Information

• Erin Anderson reports that Plano Independent School District is being sued for failing to disclose information about known mold hazards in its schools.
     
• At issue is the district's failure to respond to a public information request for more than two months. State law requires governmental bodies to respond in writing to public information requests within 10 business days.
     
• Shannon Ayres had been seeking information about mold hazards in Plano ISD schools. Local officials simply refused to respond.
      
• At the start of the school year, students and staff at a district school reported visible mold, offensive odors, and potential mold-related health issues. In October, Plano ISD closed the school for “enhanced” mold mitigation ... less than two weeks after telling concerned families the school posed “no health concerns” related to mold.
     
• Why do government schools hate transparency?

Quote-Unquote

"Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it."

– Pericles​

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