3 Educational Bills in Legislation will Cripple Our Higher Education in Texas
I have been up to my neck listening to the many nonprofits, teachers, university professors, and others testify about three bills- SB16, SB17, and SB18. Unfortunately, these bills are the ones that will hurt our Higher Education system in Texas. I will try to break down these bills that are filled with our Texas Republicans’ Ideology of how a professor should teach their classes in college classrooms.
Beginning with SB16, which requires all public colleges and universities to commit to an environment that promotes intellectual diversity, intellectual inquiry, and academic freedom. At first glance, this bill may look harmless because of how the Senate Bill was written, with vague language that needs to be clarified. However, it seems that this 88th Legislation feels that “Intellectual Diversity” in our Higher Education needs to be controlled so that all students have a safe environment to learn regardless of race, sex, and religion as defined in the bill of intellectual diversity. It also states that the faculty members “may not compel or attempt to compel” a student enrolled at the institution to adopt a belief that any race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex, ethnicity, or religion.
The bigger question is how our History, English, and Psychology professors will teach their classes without discussing race, society, and our country’s history. As the Senate Committee listened to people testify against this bill, not one Senator had any questions for those that testified. The bigger question now is what our professors can teach without facing losing their jobs or the school being fined. If this bill passes, it will create a historical mess as the new generation will never be able to grasp how this “great nation” was built or understand what ‘we the people’ means in our U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
Now let us go over SB17, which could mean the end of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. If SB17 passes, this will impose several new retractions on all state-funded universities. This would also cause issues when colleges hire new staff or teachers because it would end “Affirmative Action” and other admissions hiring policies. This bill would also cause the college to close down certain cultural clubs or spaces on their campus, which provide a haven for many students. The school may have to close programs that help our special needs students getting their resources and veterans centers. I am assuming that the “ideology” is that the word ‘minority’ will be erased in our history books and now we’re all checking off the same racial identity box. Which now means that a minority student who is applying to a college, can no longer mention a personal hardship that happens to involve prejudice because it will no longer be a consideration on their application. The bill picks and chooses which ideas it considers safe to discuss, and in the process, completely takes the students’ rights away because it doesn’t allow them to explain what happened in their life and why they want to attend their school.
I also wondered if a student is applying to a college will there still be scholarships for African-Americans and Mexican Americans or the at-needs scholarship which means your living in poverty. Then what will happen to all our HBCU’s across Texas? These are some issues we need to ask our Senate Educational Committee.
SB18 is the bill which will remove the tenure act for all new hires at our state-funded colleges. This SB18 is another way of removing our professor’s rights and could cause many Texas research programs to lose money.
Lastly, if all three of these bills pass, it would directly remove tenure protections from faculty and close down any debates on academics, which is what our politicians want. This means that our politicians want everyone to sit down and not speak up for any rights because they see that as a threat to their perfect society which doesn’t exist in our community. This 88th legislation is filled with more bad bills than good.
And If anyone has any concerns or questions please email at lena.lopez@observer.com you may also leave any comments online where we can continue this conversation.
Have a blessed week,
Lena Lopez
