Good morning,

Mark Twain said they were "idiots," but that description might not be strong enough considering some Texas school boards' behavior. We need to think seriously about who is responsible for that.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, January 23, 2026.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Higher Education Coordinating Board Officially Repeals ‘Resident Status’ Policy

• Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board has officially repealed an old policy related to in-state tuition for illegal aliens. Adam Cahn has the details.
       
• The board removed the old policy from its rules as part of the consent agenda during its quarterly meeting without any discussion. It had already been superseded by a new policy adopted last year after Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Trump administration orchestrated a legally binding consent decree that ended the Rick Perry-era law allowing illegal aliens to qualify for in-state tuition.

Winter Storm Rewatch

Texas Defends Ten Commandments Mandate In Court

• Attorneys for Texas and Louisiana defended the constitutionality of the states’ Ten Commandments laws before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans this week. Travis Morgan outlines the case.
    
• Both states’ legislatures had passed laws requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the laws have led to preliminary injunctions blocking the laws’ enforcement. In Texas, the law is only blocked in the school districts specifically named in the lawsuits.
      
• The Fifth Circuit combined the cases and arguments were heard in an en banc sitting—meaning all 17 judges were present. Regardless of the decision they reach, the case is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Buckingham Backs Second Offshore Oil Lease

• Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has submitted comments in support of a second offshore oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of America. As Addie Hovland reports, the first lease sale—known as Big Beautiful Gulf 1—generated more than $300 million in high bids for 181 blocks across 80 million acres in the Gulf of America.

Harris County District Clerk Warns of Commissioners Court Control

• Outgoing Harris County District Clerk Marilyn Burgess (D) is accusing the Democrat-led commissioners court of exerting undue control over independently elected offices. Michael Wilson has the story.
    
• According to Burgess, actions taken by commissioners have made it more difficult for her office to operate and have weakened the district clerk’s independence. She cited purchasing approvals and technology decisions as examples, noting even basic processes have become unreasonably burdensome.
      
• Although countywide elected officials operate independently under state law, the commissioners court controls budgets, staffing levels, and salaries.
      
• Burgess is not seeking re-election.

Jury Awards Families $7.5 Million in School Retaliation Case

• In a landmark win for parental rights and free speech, a federal jury found that officials in the Marlin Independent School District unlawfully retaliated against two families for publicly complaining about the district. As Erin Anderson reports, the families were awarded $7.5 million in damages.
         
• At issue was the superintendent's decision in 2023 to cancel Marlin ISD’s graduation ceremony just three days before it was to take place, claiming only five seniors were eligible to graduate. During the trial, jurors heard testimony confirming that nearly the entire senior class had actually been eligible to graduate on time. Jurors also heard how the district's police chief and other officials, as well as its law firm—owned by State Sen. Royce West (D–Dallas)—had been involved in trying to retaliate against the families.
        
• The unanimous verdict followed a week-long trial in Waco that ended Tuesday evening.

Lawsuit Alleges Teachers Gave Preschoolers Sleep Aids Without Consent

• Parents of six students at a Spring Independent School District elementary school are suing teachers after they allegedly gave the children melatonin sleep patches without consent. The allegations first surfaced in September 2024, when one parent said her daughter returned home from school with a sticker that her teacher had allegedly described as something “to go to sleep.”
    
• The parents are seeking more than $2 million in damages. 

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Friday Reflection
Idiotic School Boards?

Mark Twain didn’t like school boards. He spoke often and disparagingly of them. At one point, he wrote, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”

Why are school boards the pinnacle of idiotic behavior? The answer may not be what any of us wants to hear.

Ours is a self-governing republic. We don’t elect masters, but servants. Our system only works when the citizenry holds elected officials and bureaucrats in careful check.

When an employer hires an employee who steals from the cash register and scares off the customers, the employer is at fault if he doesn’t take action. The behavior an employer tolerates will be the standard for the rest of the employees to follow. 

The same goes for elections.

So let’s think about that Mark Twain quote. One must ask: why are school boards filled with ‘idiots’?

The uncomfortable answer? Voters have allowed it. It is our fault.

Self-governance as a governing model begins by governing ourselves.

In Texas, more than 90 percent of voters don’t vote in school elections. Even fewer ask the necessary questions that would provide the kind of civic oversight required in our system of government. If we’re not doing our job as citizens, how can we expect the elected servants to do theirs?

Everyone complains about multi-gazillion-dollar high school football stadiums… but then don’t vote in the elections where those are being debated. Everyone complains about their high property taxes… but then don’t vote in the elections where 50 percent-plus of the property tax “bite” originates… The list of complaints about our schools, unaddressed by civic engagement, goes on and on.

The answer to why school boards seem to engage so regularly in idiotic behavior... is found uncomfortably in the mirror.

So while school boards might be, as Twain argued, the pinnacle of idiocy, the fault rests with citizens who allow it.

If we want to stop the idiots, we ourselves must first stop being the idiots. School boards, and therefore the schools, will improve only when the citizens are more engaged.

Quote-Unquote

"Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage."

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

Directory of Officials

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