#TXLEGE: School District Electioneering Ban Still Moving

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

We were looking for something else in today's posting for the house elections committee, when we noticed the following bill was up:

SB 1569        Fallon                  
Relating to the use of public money and resources by employees of an independent school district to distribute a communication that advocates for or opposes a political measure, candidate, or party; creating a criminal offense.

This bill is in direct response to the shenanigans the educrats pulled during the last election cycle.

It's very welcome.

As a principle, it's (kinda) similar to taxpayer funded lobbying.  At their core, both taxpayer funded lobbying and electioneering by school districts involve taxing all citizens to subsidize one set of political views.  It's compelled speech.

Public subsidies for certain forms of political speech are one of the bigger problems this state faces.  Moving forward, one conclusion we've reached from this session is that they need to be address more systemically.  We fully intended to include school district electioneering in that discussion.  But, if the legislature wants to knock out that one form of subsidy right now, so much the better.

Bottom Line: To be honest, we thought this bill had died weeks ago.  We never thought they'd find the votes to get it out of the Senate.  But, if they could votes in that chamber, maybe they can find them in the house....