Good morning,

Yesterday, we asked your thoughts about the possibility of schools tied to terrorists and foreign adversaries receiving school choice funds. Find out below what readers had to say.

In this edition of the Texas Minute, we review some of the biggest themes of the last twelve months ... and one thing we will all be watching in 2026.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 

NOTE: The Texas Minute will take a short break and then resume on Monday, January 5, 2026.

2025 in Review

Texas-sized Fight Over 'Big Beautiful' Map

• In response to a 2024 federal court decision, Texas Republicans began considering mid-decade redistricting a year ago. Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers into a special legislative session. The result is what President Donald Trump called a "big beautiful" map, but Democrats insisted was a product of racial gerrymandering.
      
• The new congressional map was quickly challenged in court, and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately allowed it to take effect for the 2026 elections. The new boundaries flip five safe Democrat seats into GOP pickup opportunities. It was found that Texas' map was drawn using only partisan voting records data.
      
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom decided to respond to Texas’ redistricting by pursuing a partisan redistricting of his own that would pick up five DEM seats—effectively canceling Texas’ efforts. Yet California's efforts are now tied up in court after the mapdrawer explicitly admitted to drawing districts based on race, a violation of federal law.
        
• With Texas' success, other states have pursued a similar path in a race to secure congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and beyond in what has become a redistricting arms race.

2025 in Review

Epidemic of Child Predators in Texas Schools Continues

• In 2023 and again in 2024, Texas Scorecard highlighted 100 cases of school employees—teachers, coaches, administrators, bus drivers—accused of sexual misconduct with students and other children. In 2025, the epidemic of sex abuse in schools not only continued but appeared to be escalating, with multiple suspects exposed each week.
    
• Charges ranged from sexually assaulting students to grooming children for sex using social media to creating child sexual abuse material.
     
• But 2025 also marked the year parents were given tools to fight back. New laws strengthen reporting requirements for suspected abuse by school employees. More importantly, targeted students can now sue their abusers and the school districts that employed them.

RELATED NEWS

• Nguyen’s teacher certification is valid through May 2029, including a “Recognized” designation, which is awarded to “highly effective public school teachers.” According to the Texas Education Agency, teachers with such a designation receive extra pay.

2025 in Review

Gambling Industry Took Losses in 2025

• At the start of 2025, lawmakers were confronted with a growing scandal at the Texas Lottery. Amid state and federal investigations into a series of illegal schemes, lawmakers dismantled the Texas Lottery Commission and transferred oversight of the games to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
     
• During the legislative session, lawmakers distanced themselves from out-of-state interests advocating for government-enforced casino monopolies. Worse for the casino industry, they bet heavily on a pro-gambling bellwether candidate in a special state senate race ... only to see that candidate come in third place. 
   
• Meanwhile, online gambling, rebranded as “prediction markets” by companies like Kalshi, has proliferated. While other states have sued these companies, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has not.

2025 in Review

THC Blazes

• One of the more fascinating fights of 2025 was waged over hemp-derived THC in Texas. Ahead of the legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick prioritized banning the substance and appeared to have accomplished his aim until a last-minute veto by Gov. Greg Abbott derailed the reset.
      
• As the year ends, there’s a partial crackdown, a divided GOP, and no clear resolution.
      
• Texas’ THC tumult comes as marijuana policy remains unsettled nationwide. Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., now allow recreational use, while voters in places like Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota recently rejected legalization ballot measures.

2025 in Review

Texas Lawmakers Finally Took China Seriously

• State lawmakers passed legislation this year prohibiting hostile nations—including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—and entities from those nations from buying Texas real estate. This came 10 years after a Chinese billionaire bought land in South Texas near a U.S. military installation.
      
• The 2025 law was passed amid Democrat resistance. Shortly after the new law took effect, the New Jersey-based Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance filed a federal lawsuit to challenge it. On December 11, the Fifth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s decision that the nonprofit lacked standing to sue.
    
• The land ban was one of a slew of defense measures state lawmakers passed to beef up security against China. The aims of these measures include protecting state infrastructure, blocking lobbying by foreign adversaries, and tightening research security at universities.
   
• American universities remain a target of the Chinese Communist Party, as they are part of the supply chain of critical technological innovation. One security specialist has warned that academia isn’t taking the threat seriously, noting that “research security isn’t an academic exercise.”

2025 in Review

Criminalizing Memes

• One of the most revealing free speech fights of the legislative session came not over protests or campaign finance, but over memes. In the closing weeks of the session, the Texas House approved legislation that would have made the distribution of altered political media—memes, edited images, parody videos, or audio recordings—a criminal offense unless they carried a government-mandated disclaimer.
      
• While pitched as a narrow response to artificial intelligence “deepfakes,” the proposal quickly drew criticism for its sweeping reach and its implications for political satire and grassroots speech.
     
• The measure died ignobly in the Senate.

2025 in Review

Texas GOP Presses Fight To Close Primary Elections

• After years of discussion, Republican Party of Texas leaders pressed ahead with a high‑stakes legal battle to close the state’s GOP primaries, arguing that Democrats and independents should no longer be allowed to help choose Republican nominees.
      
• The effort has pitted the party and Attorney General Ken Paxton against Secretary of State Jane Nelson, an appointee of Gov. Greg Abbott. Nelson is spending more than $1 million in public funds to defend Texas’ current open primary system in federal court.​
      
• If the GOP and Paxton prevail, Texas would join states like Florida and New York that require voters to register by party before taking part in primary elections.

Looking Ahead

A New Property Tax Fight

• For many Texans, the Legislature’s 2025 property tax package offered welcome relief but fell short of the meaningful break they had hoped for, as relentless appraisal growth and local tax hikes have continued to drag bills higher. 
      
• Now, Gov. Greg Abbott is building a 2026 campaign ahead of the 2027 legislative session around a broad restructuring of the property tax system. Frustrated homeowners are cautiously optimistic that real reform may finally be within reach.

Quote-Unquote

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

– Benjamin Franklin​

The Texas Minute will resume on Monday, January 5, 2026.

Y'All Answered

Last week, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock asked Attorney General Ken Paxton for a legal opinion on whether schools affiliated with either the Council on American-Islamic Relations or the Communist Party of China are eligible to participate in Texas’ new school choice program. 

We asked readers if the state's school choice program should be open to such schools. More than 95 percent of readers want CAIR and CCP-affiliated schools to be blocked from the program, while 4.4 percent disagreed.

Here's a sampling of what folks had to say. 

• “TEXAS DOES NOT NEED TO BECOME MINNESOTA!” – Ellen Grossman
     
• “All one has to do is review what has happened in 'Somaliasota' to understand that not everyone has the greater good in mind as they apply for 'free stuff.’” – Roy Leather
      
• “If Texas encourages and supports religious schools, then Texas has to support them all as long as they follow the guidelines in what the state requires. As for linking them to terrorist organizations, show me the proof.” – Joanne Minuete
      
• “I do not trust Texas politicians, particularly Republicans, to give all viewpoints a fair hearing.  If it's not Evangeliban, Texas Republicans don't want it operating.” – Tess Ailshire
     
• “Unthinkable. CAIR is a foreign terrorist organization; the CCP is committed to overthrowing our political system. We must deport their foreign-born representatives, and we must prosecute for treason any American who helps them infiltrate our systems.” – Mark Juelg
      
• “I do not believe terrorist organizations should even be allowed in our country. Why would we sign our own death warrant?” – Jean Reed
       
• “ISLAM should not be taught in any school in the USA. It is a cult religion teaching hatred, slavery, and terrorism. Islam does not belong in USA culture. It is Anti-Christ.” – Sam Bridges
      
• “Why would we allow any school in America to have ties with the CCP and CAIR, let alone give them money also?!” – Wendy Nylaan
      
• “I think the question should be, why are these people here in the first place?” – Randy Schroder
      
• “Sharia and foreign law has zero place in Texas! Nuff said…” – JoAnna Untermeyer
      
• “A primary purpose of education is to be able to assimilate into society. Islamic ideology is to dominate as a priority and not assimilate. So no, they should not. The divisiveness would increase. They are taught hatred.” – Brent Shutt
      
• “If people want their kids indoctrinated instead of educated, then they should pay for the opportunity without any taxpayer help.” – Jane Kappes

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* The new congressional boundaries for representational purposes will not take effect until January 2027.