MRT: Abbott: Students Will Return to School this Fall; Morath: Schools ‘Will be Safe’; Cornyn, Cruz Differ on DACA Ruling; RIP Thomas Freeman
Here's what you need to know in Texas today.
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BY: @MattMackowiak
FRIDAY – 06/20/20
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TOP NEWS
"Houston Dreamers relieved by Supreme Court ruling on DACA,"The Houston Chronicle's Hannah Dellinger -- "In September 2017, Lujano’s temporary feeling of security shattered when the Trump administration ended DACA. But on Wednesday, Lujano said she could breathe a little better. In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the executive branch from ending the program.
That means Lujano and about 800,000 other DACA recipients can apply to the program again.
The Supreme Court victory for immigration rights does not mean the fight is over, said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, an organization that aids immigrant families.
The ruling requires the Trump administration to give up on ending DACA or prove to a lower court that it has proper legal justification to cease the program. If the administration decides to continue to pursue legal action, it could take months.
There still is no pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.
“We are not there yet,” he said. “We’re going to continue this fight… until we get a permanent solution for DREAMers.” The uncertainty of the future isn’t new to undocumented people. They have lived with it since arriving in the United States." Houston Chronicle
"Thomas Freeman, influential debate coach at Texas Southern, dies at 100,"The Washington Post's Harrison Smith -- "For years, the most prominent figure at Texas Southern University was a slim, short-bearded debate coach known as Doc — a master of forensic speech, or the art of public speaking and debate, who outshined the university’s football coaches, outlasted 12 school presidents and built one of the country’s most celebrated debate programs.
A Baptist minister as well as a professor, Thomas F. Freeman was one of those rare instructors whose mentorship and guidance outside the classroom was prized as much as his teaching. His students included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gospel singer Yolanda Adams and Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-Tex.), whose eloquent and impassioned speeches captivated national audiences in the 1970s.
“I cannot overestimate the impact and influence Dr. Freeman had on my life,” Jordan once told The New York Times. “He stretches your mind. He places you on your own, teaches you to stand on your feet, think, and open your mouth and talk.” Another former student, Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D), told the newspaper: “He taught us to push as hard as we could to go as far as we could.”
At Texas Southern, a historically black university in Houston, Dr. Freeman was a campus fixture for more than seven decades, and a link to the Jim Crow era in which he and his debate teams struggled to find food and lodging on the road, even as they beat white competitors from Harvard and other elite institutions." Washington Post
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Texas students will return to school campuses this fall, Gov. Greg Abbott tells lawmakers,"The Texas Tribune's Aliyya Swaby -- "Texas students will be returning to public schools in person this fall, Gov. Greg Abbott told state lawmakers Thursday morning.
The state's top education officials confirmed the plans in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
"It will be safe for Texas public school students, teachers, and staff to return to school campuses for in-person instruction this fall. But there will also be flexibility for families with health concerns so that their children can be educated remotely, if the parent so chooses," said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
When students return, school districts will not be required to mandate students wear masks or test them for COVID-19 symptoms, said Frank Ward, a spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency.
The TEA is expected to release additional guidance for school districts next Tuesday. Abbott has long said his intention is for students to return in-person this fall, saying this week that there will "definitely be higher safety standards in place than when they opened last year."" Texas Tribune
"Texas schools 'will be safe' to reopen in August, education commissioner says,"The Houston Chronicle's Jacob Carpenter -- "Texas schools “will be safe” places for students and staff to return in the upcoming school year, though families fearful of sending children to campuses will be able to continue online learning, Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Thursday.
The comments, issued after Gov. Greg Abbott told state legislators about plans to reopen campuses this fall, offer additional confirmation that state officials are moving toward bringing students and faculty back into school buildings in August. Much remains unknown about how schools will look amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, though Texas Education Agency officials are expected to publicly release detailed plans Tuesday for safety, funding and operations.
In a three-sentence statement, Morath said, “It will be safe for Texas public school students, teachers, and staff to return to school campuses for in-person instruction this fall. But there will also be flexibility for families with health concerns so that their children can be educated remotely, if the parent so chooses. Detailed guidance on what this will look like will be issued by TEA early next week.”
The statement offered little new information to Texas superintendents, who have been planning as if state officials will give them extensive discretion over how to reopen facilities in August. However, a separate confirmation this week that the TEA will not mandate students use personal protective equipment while in schools illustrated the significant amount of power that likely will be left to district leaders.
“The governor today placed the burden of opening schools squarely on the shoulders of public school districts,” Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said.
Education leaders across the state face numerous logistical and safety challenges tied to reopening schools amid the ongoing pandemic. Their task has become all-the-more complicated in recent days, as confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increased throughout the state and Houston region.
Few districts have announced concrete plans as they await Tuesday’s guidance from the TEA. Many are mapping out multiple contingency plans, with the most frequent discussions involve a “hybrid” model in which some students would attend in-person classes while others stay home and learn online.
Some state education leaders and teachers interpreted Abbott’s comments Thursday as an indication that schools would be expected to resume normal operations, highlighted by state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, writing that “we can’t put all kids back in the classroom without a handle on the spread of this virus.” However, state officials have not indicated they will mandate all students — let alone a certain number — must return to school buildings.
State officials essentially can dictate that students return to campuses by tying funding to in-person attendance rates, the traditional method for allocating per-student funding, though area superintendents do not expect that to happen. Education leaders are, however, eagerly awaiting state guidance about how students will be counted in 2020-21 for funding purposes.
In Houston ISD, the state’s largest district, officials are planning for three reopening scenarios: all in-person classes, all at-home virtual classes and a combination of the two. Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said she expects to have the authority to decide which option to deploy in August.
“I just read the comments today that there would not be an order in place saying schools would continue to be closed,” Lathan said during a KRTK-TV virtual town hall Thursday.
In a statement, Conroe ISD administrators said they are “actively preparing for in-person instruction as well as a potential online learning option,” which includes surveying parents on their technology needs, experiences with digital classes and preferences for returning the campuses." Houston Chronicle
"HPD chief Acevedo faces renewed pressure to release audit into embattled narcotics division,"The Houston Chronicle's St. John Barned-Smith and Jasper Scherer -- "A growing chorus of elected officials is calling on Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo to release the findings of an internal audit on his department’s narcotics division, arguing that the chief’s refusal to do so contradicts his vows to be transparent and accountable.
Acevedo ordered the internal probe after the deadly 2019 raid at 7815 Harding St., which ended with the deaths of two homeowners and left four police officers shot. Investigators subsequently said that the officer who orchestrated the raid lied to get the warrant he used in the operation.
Now, with the death of George Floyd in Minnesota galvanizing worldwide protests and searing scrutiny of police departments across the country, state Reps. Anna Eastman, Christina Morales, Jon Rosenthal, Senfronia Thompson and Gene Wu are renewing their call from March for Acevedo to release the audit. And they are joined by three other members of the Texas House — Garnet Coleman, Gina Calanni and Mary Ann Perez — along with U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and more than half of Houston City Council.
Wu, who wrote both letters, said that the chief’s reluctance to release the audit is at odds with his past pledges to be transparent and hold officers accountable.
“The violations of policies, procedures and laws by officers in the Narcotics Division must be made known to the public,” wrote Wu, D-Houston. “If there are other officers who have repeatedly broken the law, the continued concealment of their behavior does a gross disservice to reputations of officers who are doing their jobs well.”
Meanwhile, Councilmembers Sallie Alcorn, Jerry Davis, Robert Gallegos, Michael Kubosh, David Martin, Amy Peck, Edward Pollard, Letitia Plummer and Greg Travis all said Acevedo should release the audit. The remaining council members declined to comment, did not respond to requests for comment or responded but did not say whether they believe the audit should be released.
Acevedo argues that releasing the audit would jeopardize the criminal prosecution against Gerald Goines, the officer behind the raid, and his former partner Steven Bryant. Goines faces murder charges in state court and a raft of additional charges in federal court, while Bryant also faces tampering charges in state and federal court.
While Acevedo in February announced reforms to the narcotics division’s standard operating procedures and other measures to address the scandal, he has never detailed the findings of the audit. After The Houston Chronicle requested a copy of the department’s audit under the Texas Public Information Act earlier this year, HPD asked the Texas Attorney General for permission to withhold the documents.
Wu, a former prosecutor, has pushed back on those concerns previously, arguing that “it is not law enforcement’s job to worry about prosecution — it’s their job to be law enforcement.”
But Acevedo on Wednesday said that after HPD received a records request for the audit, his staff consulted with prosecutors who asked the police department to seek permission from the Attorney General’s Office not to release the document." Houston Chronicle
"Petition to reinstate camping ban in Austin receives 10,000 signatures," via KTBC-- "A petition to reinstate the camping ban in Austin has received 10,000 signatures, half of the signatures needed for it to be placed on the November ballot.
Save Austin Now, a nonpartisan educational nonprofit has announced that they have collected more than 10,000 signatures on their petition effort to reinstate the camping ban. According to the nonprofit, if they receive 20,000 validated signatures from Austin residents by July 18, the ordinance will be placed on the November ballot.
Save Austin Now's ordinance has three provisions:Reinstates the ban on homeless camping citywide Restores the sit, lie ordinance to downtown and extends it to the UT campus surrounding areaBans panhandling at night citywide from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“Given the unprecedented challenges presented by coronavirus and shelter-at-home, it is a tremendous achievement that we have reached 10,000 signatures,” said Save Austin Now co-founder Matt Mackowiak. “The disastrous camping ordinance has harmed public safety, public health, the image of Austin, and tourism. In May we learned that the Point-in-Time study showed a 45 percent increase in ‘unhoused’ homeless between January 2019 and January 2020."
‘Save Austin Now’ hoping to get Austin’s homeless crisis on November ballot.
Matt Mackowiak, co-founder of Save Austin Now is launching a new petition drive to put Austin’s homeless ordinance changes on the November ballot. The group would like to put the ordinances back to the way they were before the Austin City Council changed them last summer. ...
“As a neighborhood activist who has sheltered homeless individuals in my home, I care about this community,” said Save Austin Now co-founder Cleo Petricek. “But we all deserve safe neighborhoods and reinstating the camping ban will make our city safer. Hitting 10,000 signatures from every neighborhood and every zip code across this city is a sign of how wide the support is for this common-sense effort.”
Save Austin Now is mailing the petition to tens of thousands of Austin residents and are asking them to fill it out, sign it, and mail it back.
"We have a plan to collect the remaining 10,000 signatures over the next 30 days, but we need additional donations and assistance from engaged Austinites who want safe neighborhoods,” Mackowiak said.
The nonprofit is also using volunteers ad canvassers to collect signatures at the polls from June 29 to July 14.
To download the petition or donate to Save Austin Now, visit their website here." KTBC
TEXANS IN DC
"Cornyn, Cruz offer different takes on DACA ruling,"The Austin American-Statesman's Maria Recio -- "They may both be conservative Republican lawyers, but U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas had very different responses to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision supporting Dreamers.
Cornyn focused on the future status of young people he called “innocent,” including more than 100,000 in Texas who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Cruz focused on John Roberts, the Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the “disgraceful” opinion that upheld the Obama administration program known as DACA, which offers deportation protection to young immigrants known as Dreamers.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Cornyn, who is running for reelection in November, praised Dreamers who have been able to work and study under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that the Trump Administration tried to terminate.
“This is just a temporary measure. DACA recipients must have a permanent legislative solution,” Cornyn said, adding that he wanted lawmakers to find a legislative solution for Dreamers.
“They deserve nothing less. These young men and women have done nothing wrong. They came to the United States as children, and in America we don’t hold children responsible for the mistakes of their parents,” Cornyn said." Austin American-Statesman
"U.S. Sen. John Cornyn will file bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday," The Texas Tribune's Alex Samuels -- "U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Thursday afternoon announced that he will introduce bipartisan legislation to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
“As we do every year, tomorrow Texans will celebrate Juneteenth and the 155th anniversary of the end of slavery in our state,” the state’s senior senator said in a floor speech Thursday.
Cornyn is not the first Texas lawmaker to take similar steps toward celebrating Juneteenth — a day commemorating the emancipation of slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, introduced a resolution aiming to recognize the historical significance of the holiday. Her measure has more than 200 cosponsors.
Cornyn’s remarks on Thursday came after he discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to rule against the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Earlier this week, a resolution from Cornyn honoring Juneteenth this year passed the U.S. Senate.
“One of the most defining days in our nation's history was when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, finally freeing all slaves in Confederate territory,” Cornyn said. “But slaves in Texas wouldn't learn this life-altering news for two and a half years.
“It took two and a half years for the slaves in the south to learn that they were free. And that day came on a day we now celebrate as Juneteenth.”
According to The New York Times, Texas became the first state in 1980 to designate Juneteenth as a holiday, though the recognition is largely symbolic. Since then, 45 other states and the District of Columbia have moved to recognize the day.
The holiday has roots in the long-awaiting moment of emancipation for black people in Texas, who found out more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that they were free.
Friday, Cornyn said, “is an opportunity to reflect on our history, the mistakes we have made, but yet how far we've come in the fight for equality, and a reminder of just how far we still have to go.”
Calls for Juneteenth to become a federal holiday have gained momentum after the police killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests that have forced the nation to grapple with its history of slavery and racism.
“As the list of black men and women killed by police officers in custody grows, the calls for action are getting louder and louder, as they must, and as they should,” Cornyn said.
“There is a clear and urgent need for leaders at every level to come together, and to deliver the change that we need to deliver, in order to match up with our ideals,” he added.
His own remarks come just one day after he faced a barrage of criticism for comments he made Wednesday over how to overhaul the country’s criminal justice system. During a hearing, Cornyn seemingly questioned whether isolated acts of police misconduct ought to be characterized as signs of systemic racism within all police departments and among police officers."" Texas Tribune
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