Latest news with #K-16EducationCommittee
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas law students warn that bill to quash 'terrorist activity' in universities could trample free speech rights
Law school students and civil rights organizations warned senators on Wednesday that a measure that would require universities to report students accused of supporting terrorist activities to federal authorities could turn their schools into immigration enforcement agencies. More than half a dozen students from the University of Texas at Austin testified against Senate Bill 2233. The bill, authored by Sen. Adam Hinojosa, a freshman Republican from Corpus Christi, would require universities and colleges to prohibit their visa-holding students and employees from publicly supporting or persuading others to support terrorist activities related to an ongoing conflict. The bill, which took up a majority of the K-16 Education Committee's time Wednesday morning before they adjourned to the Senate floor, uses the federal government's definition of terrorist activity, which includes the highjacking or sabotaging of aircrafts, vessels or vehicles; seizing or detaining and threatening to kill, injure or continue to detain another individual in order to compel a third person, including a governmental entity, to do or abstain from doing something; a violent attack upon an internationally protected person; an assassination; or the use of any biological or chemical agent, nuclear weapon, explosive, firearm or any other dangerous device for purposes other than mere personal monetary gain. The bill does not define what would constitute as supporting terroristic activity. Under SB 2233, the universities would be required to suspend students for one year for the first violation and expel or terminate them for a second violation. Higher education institutions would also be required to report the students' and employees' suspensions, expulsions or terminations to the Department of Homeland Security and no other university or college in the state would be permitted to admit or hire them. Everyone who testified before the committee Wednesday was in opposition to the bill. Many said the bill was too vague and could be used to either punish or discourage people from expressing their political views because doing so could be conflated as support for a terrorist organization. Others said it would open the door for universities to monitor and surveil visa-holding students. Some said universities might even have an incentive to do so because the bill also puts their funding at risk. Those who testified on Wednesday, including representatives from the Texas Civil Rights Project and the American Civil Liberties Union, said SB 2233 would violate free speech rights protected under the First Amendment. They also raised concerns that it would violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process. UT-Austin law student Alice Min told the committee that her parents came to the U.S. from China on a student visa after participating in a protest in 1990 that culminated in the massacre at Tiananmen Square. She said they came to the U.S. because they felt they did not have a say in China's future and knew they would put themselves and their families in danger by speaking up. They are now U.S. citizens, she said. Her father is a professor and her mother works for FedEx. 'They are shocked and ashamed of the country that they have sought refuge in has become more and more like the country they have fled,' Min said. SB 2233 is one of several bills aimed at addressing protests of the Israel-Hamas war that took place on campuses across the country last year and a rise in reports of antisemitism. The protests sparked a debate over what kind of behavior is considered antisemitic and which is protected by free speech rights. State leaders have condemned the protests as inherently antisemitic while protest organizers have defended their right to criticize Israel's actions in the war. The bill comes as more than 250 international students and at least one professor in Texas have either had their visas revoked or their immigration status marked as terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS database. They have not been told the reason for the revocations or terminations, but DHS has said it is targeting those who have committed crimes and who it believes are antisemitic. Last year, Texas ranked third in the United States for the state with the most international students, with 89,546 students, according to Open Doors, an organization that conducts an annual census of international students in the country and is sponsored by the federal government. The Senate has already passed one measure related to combating antisemitism. SB 326 would require public schools to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism and its examples if a student is found to have violated the school's code of conduct and if administrators find that the violation could have been motivated by antisemitism. Some people, including Jews, have criticized the definition, saying it could lead to students being punished for protected speech that is critical of Israel. That bill was authored by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, who during Wednesday's hearing said he took offense to one witness who said during their testimony that international students are being 'kidnapped' by masked law enforcement officers across the country. Both King and Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said law enforcement sometimes need to wear masks when carrying out their duties to protect their families from retaliation. 'When you say things like that it's exceptionally offensive, particularly when you refer to them as kidnapping, because if they were kidnapping I guarantee you somebody, particularly in Travis County, would have been filing charges against them,' King said. 'They're operating either with a warrant or under some other lawful authority to make that detention or apprehension.' Creighton has a bill the committee is expected to consider later on Wednesday that in part would prohibit students from wearing masks, facial coverings, disguises or other means to conceal their identity when protesting. Creighton said he was proposing that measure to assist law enforcement in identifying students who have broken the law. SB 2233 would also allow the attorney general's office to bring suit against higher education institutions that do not comply with this law and for a court to fine them 1% of their annual budget per instance of failure to comply. The bill was left pending in committee after Democrat Sens. José Menéndez of San Antonio and Royce West of Dallas raised concerns with the bill, which also says that visa-holding students and employees would be prohibited from publicly supporting or persuading others to support terroristic activity or terrorist organizations 'unless it is the policy or practice of the United States to support that activity or organization.' 'The whole bill is problematic, but that in particular makes no sense,' Menéndez said. Kyle Zagon, a Jewish UT-Austin law student who also identified himself as a Zionist, said he has participated in debates with other students since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that have both reaffirmed his convictions and taught him to be more empathetic. 'I will remind you that we are not your convenient victims. Jewish wellbeing, our safety, it is not an excuse to infringe on the rights of others, of Americans,' Zagon said. 'To imply that our people, our very name, that means to wrestle with God, need to be protected from dissenting views, is infantilizing and opportunistic.' The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Associated Press
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Texas Senate to consider bill that could reshape how history and race are taught in universities
Texas senators could vote this week on a bill that would drastically limit how the state's public universities teach their students about history, race and inequality. Senate Bill 37 would also create a way to file complaints about universities that higher ed experts say could threaten their funding and create a profound chilling effect. 'I really hope people are paying attention because there's some pretty high-stakes gambles we're taking,' said Neal Hutchens, a professor at the University of Kentucky's College of Education, about the proposed legislation. Hutchens reviewed SB 37 when it was first filed last month and after its author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, filed an extensive rewrite of the legislation last week that included significant differences from the original version of the bill. The public was not invited to comment on the revamped legislation, which was quickly voted out of the Texas Senate's K-16 Education Committee last week. Here are some of the most notable changes to the bill and what they might look like in practice. Control over curricula An earlier version of the bill would have required each system's board of regents to create committees to review curricula every year and ensure courses did 'not endorse specific public policies, ideologies or legislation.' Texas professors criticized that provision as being too vague. 'Could teaching about the existence of LGBTQ people in the American past be considered promoting an 'ideology' of gender and sexual non-discrimination? There is no end to the topics that could be censored because political leaders consider them to be ideological in nature,' said Lauren Gutterman, who teaches history at the University of Texas at Austin, in written testimony the American Association of University Professors submitted to the committee last month. Gutterman said she was writing in her capacity as a private citizen. If the current version of SB 37 passes both the Senate and House, the boards would instead screen courses every five years to ensure they 'do not distort significant historical events'; they do not teach that one race is superior or bears personal or collective responsibility for the actions committed by other individuals of the same race; and they are not based 'on a theory that racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege is inherent in the institutions of the United States or this state or was created to maintain social, political or economic inequalities.' Hutchens said this language could have been inspired by Florida's Stop the Woke Act or model legislation provided by conservative nonprofit policy groups that focus on higher education, like the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in North Carolina. 'I certainly didn't see this as necessarily addressing the concerns that faculty had raised regarding the original bill,' Hutchens said. SB 37 would also create a statewide committee that would evaluate which core curricula at public universities are 'foundational' and which could be cut. The committee would be formed by three appointees from the governor, two from the lieutenant governor and two from the speaker of the House of Representatives. The bill doesn't require that any members be students, faculty or university administrators. The commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board would serve as an ex-officio member. This committee would share its findings with the universities' boards of regents by Dec. 1, 2026, and the boards would have to adopt and implement rules based on those findings by 2027. Tools to report The original bill would have created a nine-person office to investigate claims that universities have broken state law. The new version gives that responsibility to an ombudsman within the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. They would investigate compliance with SB 37 as well as laws that put restrictions on free speech activities on campuses and that prohibit university police departments from limiting the enforcement of immigration laws, among others. Notably, it adds that any person can file a report as long as they provide sufficient information to follow up on the claim. Hutchens worried this could lead to a 'tsunami of meritless complaints' or the targeting of individual faculty members. 'It could undercut academic freedom and it could be another reason that you see Texas colleges, universities, the public ones, become not as desirable for people, for that really, really top talent to pursue positions,' he said. If the ombudsman determines a university is not complying with the law and it does not resolve the issue within 30 days, they could refer it to the Attorney General's Office, which could sue the university to compel it to comply with the law or recommend to the Legislature that the institution's state funds be withheld. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board does not currently have an ombudsman position. Right now, the agency is responsible for reviewing complaints from students related to tuition and fees. Faculty, hiring limitations Creighton and other Republicans have previously criticized what they see as faculty's excessive influence in university decisions that they say should rest with the board of regents. SB 37 initially proposed only allowing tenured professors to join the faculty bodies that advise university administrators on some curricular and academic issues — known as faculty councils and senates. Creighton struck out that requirement, but added that members who use their position for 'personal political advocacy' could be immediately removed. This comes after Angie Hill Price, the speaker of the faculty senate at Texas A&M University, testified in opposition to SB 37 last month. 'I am very concerned how this bill will impact us because we're not broken,' she said during her testimony last month. She added that there is a lot of evidence to show that the faculty senate at the flagship university has contributed to its successes, including being one of the first institutions to top more than $1 billion in research expenditures. 'All this has happened with the faculty senate directly involved with enhancing the curriculum and working with our students to improve their experience both inside and outside the classroom,' Hill Price said. SB 37 also initially proposed the board of regents should be responsible for hiring anyone in a leadership position. The new version of the bill would allow presidents to hire these individuals, but they must not delegate the responsibility to anyone else and the board can overrule their decisions. Typically, leadership positions like deans are hired by their universities' presidents after a search committee composed of faculty, staff and students vets the candidates. Emphasis on job readiness The new version of SB 37 also borrows ideas from other pending legislation that aims to phase out degree programs that don't clearly provide a return on investment for students, who sometimes take on large amounts of debt to complete them. It would give the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board the power to review and rate programs every five years, and universities would not be able to continue using state money in programs that receive unfavorable ratings or enroll students in them. The value of a degree has been under renewed scrutiny in recent years as loan debts increase and enrollment decreases at universities across the nation. Although Texas is not experiencing the latter, lawmakers are right to criticize colleges for not doing more to connect students to careers after graduation, said Josh Wyner, vice president of the Aspen Institute. But Wyner said Texas should be cautious when making decisions about what programs to target. Students who are pursuing philosophy undergraduate degrees don't typically become philosophers — they become lawyers and social workers after getting advanced degrees, he said. 'We have to be careful that we don't legislate out credentials that actually will have labor market value or value to society,' he said. ___
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Jewish Texans disagree on how to combat antisemitism in schools during hearing on Senate bill
Some Jewish Texans on Tuesday supported a measure to address a rise in antisemitism in schools, while others said it would not only stifle free speech but make them less safe. They testified Tuesday evening on Senate Bill 326 in the Senate's K-16 Education Committee. The bill would require public school districts, open-enrollment charter schools and colleges and universities to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition and examples of antisemitism in student disciplinary proceedings. The IHRA defines antisemitism as 'a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.' A few examples the IHRA provides of antisemitism are 'denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,' 'applying double standards by requiring of it (Israel) a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,' and 'holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the state of Israel.' Oli Hoffman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, said the IHRA definition encourages 'a dangerous conflation of the government of Israel and the Jewish people.' 'I am a proud Longhorn studying education,' Hoffman said, 'and I can recall some respectful debates regarding Israel that I was a party to on campus that would be defined as antisemitic come Sept. 1 if this bill is passed.' Students at UT Austin and universities throughout the country demonstrated support for Palestinians last spring, calling for their universities to divest from manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons in its strikes on Gaza. UT officials called state police, who responded to the campus and arrested more than 100 people. While some have criticized the university for what they called a heavy-handed response, others have applauded it as necessary to combat protests they saw as antisemitic. Some point to the phrase some protesters chanted, 'from the river to the sea,' as evidence of this. 'From the river to the sea' refers to a stretch of land between the Jordan River on the eastern flank of Israel and the occupied West Bank to the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Pro-Palestinian activists have said this is a call for peace and equality in the Middle East, but SB 326's author, Phil King, R-Weatherford, said he thinks that phrase calls for the killing of Jews. Sandra Parker, vice chair of the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission and King's invited witness, agreed and added that it also calls for the eradication of the Jewish state. She stressed that the bill would allow school leaders to decide on their own if a student has violated their code of conduct and provides them a tool to determine whether the violation was motivated by antisemitism. That could help the school determine what discipline is warranted, she said. 'Why is that necessary? Because you cannot defeat what you are unwilling to define,' Parker said. 'We know the conduct is happening, but why? The answer can only be one of two things. Antisemitism is being tolerated and ignored or people don't know what antisemitism is when they see it.' Parker added that the bill could address incidents like one at a high school in San Antonio where she said a student who is not Jewish had an Israel flag stolen and destroyed by another student. The school then moved the student who owned the flag to another classroom rather than punish the students who destroyed the flag. 'This behavior was aimed to silence both Jewish students and those who support them,' Parker said. But other Jewish Texans disagreed with King and Parker that the phrase 'from the river to the sea' is antisemitic. 'Whatever the intentions of this bill, understand that it actually makes Jews in Texas less safe to formally associate us with a foreign government, evoking the longstanding antisemitic charge of dual loyalty that's been leveled against Jewish people in the U.S. and Europe for decades, setting us apart from our neighbors and painting us as outsiders,' said Jennifer Margulies, who attends Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, which a man set on fire in 2022. 'I know what antisemitism looks like,' she said. 'It looks like needing to reassure my child that it's safe to attend Hebrew school when I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drive by the burnt black sanctuary doors to drop her off, hoping that I am not lying.' Since protests broke out last spring, lawmakers have heard about an uptick in antisemitic incidents in schools. They heard that again on Tuesday from Jackie Nirenberg, a regional director for the Anti-defamation League. She said the ADF and Hillel International, a Jewish Campus organization, surveyed Jewish college students at 135 colleges and universities across the U.S. and found that 83% of them have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. SB 326 was left pending in committee. State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, has filed identical legislation in the House. The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
