Chaplains as Counselors, Removing DEI, Drag Show Age Requirement and Puberty Blockers- The Texas 88th Legislature Education Bills Update
Hello SAISD Parents and San Antonio Community,
As we approach May 29th, the last day of the 88th Texas Legislation, the clock is winding down. Monday, as our senate passed SB17, this bill wants to remove all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices from all colleges and universities. Texas took a huge step back in history when our schools were segregated; this bill will cause issues for our college students and will affect our future students. At this point, we are still determining how the state will close all these offices. Then SB14 passed, which wouldn’t allow drag shows to be seen by anyone under 18 on public property.
Late Sunday, our Senate Education Committee held a private meeting, and just when we were excited that SB8 had expired, they used HB100, a bill about school safety, to get their school vouchers. It’s important to know that the House Education Committee didn’t see it nor get a chance to vote on this bill. So they used HB100, which is now 133 pages. This was a last-ditch effort to get school vouchers. This new bill will give teachers free pre-k within the district they work in, and it will raise the basic student allotment by $50; it would also offer first-time specific teacher certification tests for free and it also talks about small raises for teachers, seeking more money for special education and creates over $3 billion for the school voucher program. The House Education Committee is not happy with this new bill at all. I am still in the process of reading every detail that they added to this new HB100 and as I get more Information, I will update you all.
This session passed HB 1515, which now requires all public schools to hang a copy of the Ten Commandments in all classrooms, and it needs to be in a 16×20 frame. So, now we’re asking our teachers to teach religion, because kids might ask why there is a copy of the 10 Commandments in our classroom? They also passed SB763, allowing a Chaplain to act as a school counselor. This decision was made because we need more counselors in our schools. This is for use by our public schools and only if they decide that hiring these chaplains would help their schools. If our school districts want to use a Chaplain, our districts will use the National School of Chaplains. Parents, you should also know that your child doesn’t need permission to see a Chaplin because they will be considered a “school counselor.” I encourage you to watch the video about this National School of Chaplains shown below. After watching it tell me what you think about this bill that just passed (my email is below). We should have used some of the billions of dollars we had in surplus to help our teachers become counselors. After watching the video, it seems that although this man was committing heinous crimes, buying drugs, it makes me wonder if this program is what Texas needs. Now before anyone gets upset, I know that God forgives us and that people can change, but the bottom line is if a person who had committed these crimes applied to become a teacher in Texas, I doubt he would be hired.
*Viewer Discretion advised. Some Scenes Show Physical Fighting in Schools.
View The Pirate Video Below
We also passed SB14, which blocks hormone therapy or puberty blockers for kids under 18 years old. This bill was debated on the floor for over 8 or 9 hours and went through 23 failed amendments. Finally, it was passed, and the crowd was upset, and some LGBTQ advocates were arrested, but it still passed. The bigger health problem is that all those children receiving these treatments now have to be “weaned off” and eventually have to stop taking them.
Now I would like to talk about the fact that our Governor Gregg Abbott made a false promise to all the Uvalde families as HB3266 failed, which would have changed the Texas law by raising the age from 18 to 21 to buy an AR-15. Instead, he used this tragedy to his advantage throughout his campaign to get reelected. This is only one of the tragedies our state has suffered; other mass shootings have happened, and yet we are still waiting for these Republicans to change the laws in Texas. It makes me wonder how many more committees or mass shootings our state will have to go through before these Republicans wake up and change gun laws in Texas.
This 88th Legislation has been one that has added many educational laws that are written with vague language, and that’s not good because then people that read and enforce these bills cannot interpret them is when they can possibly take advantage of our teachers, which could cause more problems within our schools and could cause our teachers to walk away.
Lastly, all we can do now is wait and see what happens by May 29th and see if our Governor will call for a special session. If anyone has any concerns or questions, please email me at lena.lopez@saobserver.com.
Have a Blessed Week,
Lena Lopez
