Texas is exceptional. Most of the civilized world is trying to reduce maternal mortality, except Texas. Most of the world understands that measles is bad, except Texas. Most of the world would rather be dragged over burning coals rather than vote for Ted Cruz, except for Texas.
Texas was "a push" for me, while I worked in the semiconductor industry. MOSTEK wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I'm pretty sure they got glommed up by some other larger firm. Texas Instruments in Dallas, on the other hand, were a bunch of pretty knowledgeable people, and more than a couple decent techs, many of whom I trained. Unfortunately, there was also TI in Austin, who thought they knew it all and shot themselves in the foot more than once ... or TWICE.
What made up for a LOT of the bad was the food, especially Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. Crawfish etouffee ... OOOOG!
Stupid, foolish, shortsighted, giving in to style over substance. And on top of everything else, they can't give a rotten damn about the kids who are going to have to put up with this crap. It makes me wonder how much blowback teachers and faculty will wind up getting when the kids draw from non-Texas sources and call their instructors on the bullshit they are being fed.
I HOPE that happens. Whether it does or not remains TBD.
I feel like I should point out that the only way to train an AI these days is pretty much the internet, and well. The result is predictable once you know that, isn't it?
David Barton is a LIAR. Frankly, that should say it all. His reputation among those of us who value unsullied history is, at its best, notorious, and at worst, despicable and utterly unacceptable, in an educational environment or anywhere else. The fact that his ridiculous book on Thomas Jefferson was pulled from publication for its blatant inaccuracies and outright lies should be reason enough NOT to have him involved in Texas education at any level.
And yet there he is, welcomed apparently with open arms (and an open checkbook, I would guess). DISGUSTING.
That's what he gets from it. What they get from it is the distorted view of history that tells them exactly what they want to hear: that only people who think exactly like them are real Americans, and the Founding Fathers intended the Christian theocracy they so desperately want.
I'm generally not in favor of voucher programs, but Texas is working hard to make "doesn't have to follow the state curriculum (or post 10C posters)" a real selling point.
...Which is likely one of their goals; not just to control the historical narrative, but at the same time limit good education to private schools, destroying public education, making upward social mobility harder.
They keep weakening child labor laws, almost as if they want completely uneducated children to replace all the brown people they are deporting. Or maybe a repeal of the 13th amendment, so they can bring back slavery. Or both.
I go with bringing back serfdom. Serfs that are not educated can be easier to control and manipulate. The elite members of the Christian nationalist movement wants obedient, non questioning workers/soldiers to work/fight and die to the sole benefit of the rich elite members of the Christian nationalists movement. Although the elite members will make sure their kids are properly educated so they can take their place as ruling nobility (that’s the attitude the rich elite have). Court intrigue is thick in the Christian Nationalist Party to become President (or king).
Vouchers wouldn't help Texas, but then, I don't think that vouchers help ANYTHING in ANY state. All they do is siphon off monies from public education to mostly go to religious indoctrination sites.
If someone has a study which actually demonstrates a positive outcome from the use of vouchers, I don't know about it.
Yeah, vouchers will only bolster that movement. The private schools will still pull all the stunts to keep the schools segregated and free from low class and disabled students. It will only make things worse.
According to Corey Robin, American political theorist, journalist and professor, the underlying motive of conservatives is to preserve existing inequalities in wealth and power. This principle, he contends, is more fundamental to conservative thought than concerns about liberty or limited government.
Barton’s ahistorical opinions align with conservative goal of presenting an American history that supports the preservation of wealth and power and justify the alienation of the lower social classes from power in order to keep them subordinate to their former masters.
Yeah, I can see we're back to that honesty problem I mentioned the other day.
This may be the largest reason I left Christianity to begin with. I noticed, even fairly young, that what I heard at church didn't really have much grounding in reality the way it should; I remember struggling for years as a teenager and young adult before I figured out what the actual problem was. It's become apparent down through the years that there are some things that Christianity cannot accept for whatever reason, and so long as that's the case, they will continue to try deceive the rest of us about those subjects. Barton is a major purveyor of this specific sort of deception, and from what I've seen, won't be changing his tune anytime soon since he's personally profiting off the lies. This is yet another Christian attempt to make history something that works with the Christian worldview; this is what Christians do rather than try and make themselves better people by acknowledging a flawed past.
Is it really any surprise I'm not a Christian anymore?
This actually gets to the overriding truth about christianity - it is so preposterous that the faithful have to continuously rehearse it or risk losing the faith. Barton tells them comforting lies about their faith and christian nationalism and helps them to maintain their faith and all at the cost of believing in an American history which no actual historian agrees with. But they can even spin that - Barton is a persecuted voice in the wilderness trying his best to save souls... in other words, horse shit.
“He argued that it was a “false premise” to say racial and ethnic minorities helped “expand political rights in America,” and that kids should be taught it was white men who did that. What about women’s suffrage? That was also because of men.”
I guess that’s true in a way. If it weren’t for white men, minorities and women wouldn’t have had to fight for a level playing field. And if it weren’t for white men being all magnanimous and generous, we still wouldn’t have the rights that white men are now taking from us.
It’s not a flex to claim white men are responsible for ending the atrocities committed against minorities and women when white men are the atrocities committed against minorities and women.
Barton is all, “I took your head out of the toilet, aren’t I a nice guy. You should be my best friend now. Take me to the airport and help me move.”
Texans like saying "Don't Mess With Texas." One of their own is about to mess with the Lone Brain Cell State's schoolchildren. So where are the cries of "Won't someone please think of the children?" now, eh?
That cry is only used to take rights away from people they don't like. People who actually think of the children are busy, feeding them, housing them, vaccinating them, and educating them to worry about slogans.
An educational role that cleary requires a certain level of tertiary qualifications and research objectivity given to someone who has none and is neither. What could go wrong? 🤔
There definitely hasn’t been any good news coming out of the education system in Texas at the k-12 to the university level. It’s all been so disappointing. Glad we have groups like ACLU of Texas and TFN who are fighting and pushing back against the insanity.
I’ve been going back and forth with school district superintendent, which has been infuriating because the responses have been utterly disappointing. Also sent petitions to state rep and Senator. The state Senator response was also pathetic. Contacted ACLU as well trying to expand the lawsuit again .
Shit storm of terrible.
This is why I watch videos of dogs or otters. To stay sane because it’s just a lot.
It was touched on in the article, but as Texas education goes, so does the entire country. Texas is so large, and has so many schools that what Texas sets as standards for textbooks, the publishers generally print for all of the USA. It is too costly to print separate textbooks for each state, despite the standards being decided at the state level, so publishers provide what the largest purchasers request. That would be Texas. California and New York might be able to get away with their own, being large themselves, but states like Wisconsin or Montana with very small populations have to make do with what the publishers provide. It is really an illusion that state legislatures set standards for schools, it is really mostly Texas. This is why the Daughters of the Confederacy were so successful spreading their propaganda as fact. Asking Barton to set standards is just a continuation of the propaganda machine.
It's not as though Texas is poor in quality universities, either. Rice University is highly ranked, and though it's been a while, it was among the places I was considering as an engineering school.
This business of putting ideology over factual education isn't going to hammer just the Lone Star State. It will damage this country and its reputation in the world for years to come.
Rice is private, and was funded (at least for the first few decades) by a massive endowment - zero to do with the State of Texas' spending or priorities on education. Though that's a quibble. UT Austin and A&M are both good schools that are funded by the state.
I don't think the issue is with whether Texas is willing to provide good University education for the upper class Texas kids who do well in HS. They are. This issue is how much Texas is willing to educate the lower and middle classes so that they have a better chance of *getting into* places like Rice, UTA, or A&M. The answer seems to be "not very."
"the exceptionalism of Texas" - I know this is serious, but that made me laugh.
Texas is exceptional. Most of the civilized world is trying to reduce maternal mortality, except Texas. Most of the world understands that measles is bad, except Texas. Most of the world would rather be dragged over burning coals rather than vote for Ted Cruz, except for Texas.
My time in Texass was filled with nothing but superlatives....
hottest, driest, boringest, ugliest, smelliest.
Texas being filled with superlaxatives does explain Ted Cruz.
Backpfeifengesichtest. 🤛
Texas was "a push" for me, while I worked in the semiconductor industry. MOSTEK wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, and I'm pretty sure they got glommed up by some other larger firm. Texas Instruments in Dallas, on the other hand, were a bunch of pretty knowledgeable people, and more than a couple decent techs, many of whom I trained. Unfortunately, there was also TI in Austin, who thought they knew it all and shot themselves in the foot more than once ... or TWICE.
What made up for a LOT of the bad was the food, especially Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. Crawfish etouffee ... OOOOG!
There was a tex mex place in East Austin that specialized in cabrito. Late 80s. My go to place.
Never had cabrito. Would love to try it, though!
The place had goat heads mounted on the walls a la deer or moose heads. It was great. I wonder if it is still there.
Exceptionally stupid?
All hat, no cattle.
All shit, no bull.
Well, maybe some bull.
And every third guy has a white truck that's actually white. About every 10th gal.
The hat ain't brag-worthy, neither.
Not even worth a free bowl of soup.
Stupid, foolish, shortsighted, giving in to style over substance. And on top of everything else, they can't give a rotten damn about the kids who are going to have to put up with this crap. It makes me wonder how much blowback teachers and faculty will wind up getting when the kids draw from non-Texas sources and call their instructors on the bullshit they are being fed.
I HOPE that happens. Whether it does or not remains TBD.
All of their AI generated reports will get a failing grade for not matching the Texass standards.
Although, now that I've said that, I wonder if you could ask AI to write a report in the style of David Barton? Hmmm...
You might ... but then I've never heard of an AI vomiting in response to a query or request, either! 🤢🤮
The AI will write it, and they'll tell you how brilliant you are to know your history.
I feel like I should point out that the only way to train an AI these days is pretty much the internet, and well. The result is predictable once you know that, isn't it?
Well, it is unique in being the only slave-holding part of Mexico to join the U.S. in order to keep its pro-slavery laws intact. Does that count?
I wonder if that gets mentioned in those Texas history classes.
Nah. texass will be the glorious state created by valiant British men, even before the 13 colonies in the East.
They fought war two times to keep their slaves.
The star on their flag is a review.
From Google:
𝑇𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙 "𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒" 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠, 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑡 32𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙.
As a Texas I am disappointed with being 32nd, and will not rest until we climb the ranks and are resting comfortably at number 50.
Because 50 is higher ... (double checks) ... than 32.
David Barton is a LIAR. Frankly, that should say it all. His reputation among those of us who value unsullied history is, at its best, notorious, and at worst, despicable and utterly unacceptable, in an educational environment or anywhere else. The fact that his ridiculous book on Thomas Jefferson was pulled from publication for its blatant inaccuracies and outright lies should be reason enough NOT to have him involved in Texas education at any level.
And yet there he is, welcomed apparently with open arms (and an open checkbook, I would guess). DISGUSTING.
USA … the UNTIDY STATES of AMERICA.
💙 …🦘🦘🦘
In places ... yeah, I'm afraid so.
Unhinged Shitholes
𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠: 𝐻𝑒’𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟. 𝐻𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑒, ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑛 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟.
That's what he gets from it. What they get from it is the distorted view of history that tells them exactly what they want to hear: that only people who think exactly like them are real Americans, and the Founding Fathers intended the Christian theocracy they so desperately want.
There’s a reason he and his son are the only “historians,” quoted by all those hypocrites…
𝐷𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑑 𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛’𝑠 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 “𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛.” 𝐻𝑒’𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛, 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒.
Barton is a historian just as much as I am an astronaut.
Send me a postcard from Saturn, please.
Rollerblading on the rings. That image might be in a Texas science book.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3UVE-3N2WV8
"Water, air, life."
Sorry for the wife beater song.
I'm generally not in favor of voucher programs, but Texas is working hard to make "doesn't have to follow the state curriculum (or post 10C posters)" a real selling point.
...Which is likely one of their goals; not just to control the historical narrative, but at the same time limit good education to private schools, destroying public education, making upward social mobility harder.
They keep weakening child labor laws, almost as if they want completely uneducated children to replace all the brown people they are deporting. Or maybe a repeal of the 13th amendment, so they can bring back slavery. Or both.
I go with bringing back serfdom. Serfs that are not educated can be easier to control and manipulate. The elite members of the Christian nationalist movement wants obedient, non questioning workers/soldiers to work/fight and die to the sole benefit of the rich elite members of the Christian nationalists movement. Although the elite members will make sure their kids are properly educated so they can take their place as ruling nobility (that’s the attitude the rich elite have). Court intrigue is thick in the Christian Nationalist Party to become President (or king).
"I go with bringing back serfdom."
I have thought for a while that the US is trying to implement neo-feudalism, with the tech bros playing the part of the robber barons.
Vouchers wouldn't help Texas, but then, I don't think that vouchers help ANYTHING in ANY state. All they do is siphon off monies from public education to mostly go to religious indoctrination sites.
If someone has a study which actually demonstrates a positive outcome from the use of vouchers, I don't know about it.
Yeah, vouchers will only bolster that movement. The private schools will still pull all the stunts to keep the schools segregated and free from low class and disabled students. It will only make things worse.
According to Corey Robin, American political theorist, journalist and professor, the underlying motive of conservatives is to preserve existing inequalities in wealth and power. This principle, he contends, is more fundamental to conservative thought than concerns about liberty or limited government.
Barton’s ahistorical opinions align with conservative goal of presenting an American history that supports the preservation of wealth and power and justify the alienation of the lower social classes from power in order to keep them subordinate to their former masters.
Yeah, I can see we're back to that honesty problem I mentioned the other day.
This may be the largest reason I left Christianity to begin with. I noticed, even fairly young, that what I heard at church didn't really have much grounding in reality the way it should; I remember struggling for years as a teenager and young adult before I figured out what the actual problem was. It's become apparent down through the years that there are some things that Christianity cannot accept for whatever reason, and so long as that's the case, they will continue to try deceive the rest of us about those subjects. Barton is a major purveyor of this specific sort of deception, and from what I've seen, won't be changing his tune anytime soon since he's personally profiting off the lies. This is yet another Christian attempt to make history something that works with the Christian worldview; this is what Christians do rather than try and make themselves better people by acknowledging a flawed past.
Is it really any surprise I'm not a Christian anymore?
This actually gets to the overriding truth about christianity - it is so preposterous that the faithful have to continuously rehearse it or risk losing the faith. Barton tells them comforting lies about their faith and christian nationalism and helps them to maintain their faith and all at the cost of believing in an American history which no actual historian agrees with. But they can even spin that - Barton is a persecuted voice in the wilderness trying his best to save souls... in other words, horse shit.
“He argued that it was a “false premise” to say racial and ethnic minorities helped “expand political rights in America,” and that kids should be taught it was white men who did that. What about women’s suffrage? That was also because of men.”
I guess that’s true in a way. If it weren’t for white men, minorities and women wouldn’t have had to fight for a level playing field. And if it weren’t for white men being all magnanimous and generous, we still wouldn’t have the rights that white men are now taking from us.
It’s not a flex to claim white men are responsible for ending the atrocities committed against minorities and women when white men are the atrocities committed against minorities and women.
Barton is all, “I took your head out of the toilet, aren’t I a nice guy. You should be my best friend now. Take me to the airport and help me move.”
Texans like saying "Don't Mess With Texas." One of their own is about to mess with the Lone Brain Cell State's schoolchildren. So where are the cries of "Won't someone please think of the children?" now, eh?
That cry is only used to take rights away from people they don't like. People who actually think of the children are busy, feeding them, housing them, vaccinating them, and educating them to worry about slogans.
An educational role that cleary requires a certain level of tertiary qualifications and research objectivity given to someone who has none and is neither. What could go wrong? 🤔
Question 1:
Who did Jesus fight at the Alamo?
A. An army of illegal Mexicans marching to take American jobs.
B. A mob of woke radicalized trans lairs and man-hating feminist bent on destroying the American family.
C. Satan and his so call scientist minion spreading the lies of evolution?
Question 2:
What proves that this country was founded on as a Christian nation?
A. Early generate forms that used the standard dating method of the time which included the phrase "in the year of our Lord."
B. Washington's name contains a lower case 't', which looks like a cross.
C. A historical letter between John Adams and his dentist that I bought and have stored in my private collection, which nobody but myself can see.
Question 3:
Is Donald J. Trump the
A. Greatest president ever.
B. The fulfillment of God's promise.
C. The smartest, handsomest most well endowed manly man every to man on earth
The answer is D all of the above
1. Reality
2. Treaty of Tripoli
3. When did the definition of well endowed change to tiny mushroom?
Mike Johnson is so good at finding Trump's mushroom that Johnson could get work as a truffle-hunting pig.
There definitely hasn’t been any good news coming out of the education system in Texas at the k-12 to the university level. It’s all been so disappointing. Glad we have groups like ACLU of Texas and TFN who are fighting and pushing back against the insanity.
I’ve been going back and forth with school district superintendent, which has been infuriating because the responses have been utterly disappointing. Also sent petitions to state rep and Senator. The state Senator response was also pathetic. Contacted ACLU as well trying to expand the lawsuit again .
Shit storm of terrible.
This is why I watch videos of dogs or otters. To stay sane because it’s just a lot.
"Board Member Brandon Hall ended his post with a nod to Donald Trump: “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”"
Is Brandon Hall's name in the Epstein Files too? Just like Pedodent tRump? It would be irresponsible not to ask.
Barton is one of the earliest entries in the Encyclopedia of American Loons, dating all the way back to May of 2010
americanloons.blogspot.com/2010/05/14-david-barton.html
It's not good not only for texass students but also for their colleges. Lowering the quality of education will bite them badly in the ass in 2 ways :
- Good students will look for colleges in other states
- Texass students who want to enroll out of states will meet standards they are not prepared for
And social studies are just the beginning. Wait for the antivaxx stupidity and humorism in biology textbooks :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism
It was touched on in the article, but as Texas education goes, so does the entire country. Texas is so large, and has so many schools that what Texas sets as standards for textbooks, the publishers generally print for all of the USA. It is too costly to print separate textbooks for each state, despite the standards being decided at the state level, so publishers provide what the largest purchasers request. That would be Texas. California and New York might be able to get away with their own, being large themselves, but states like Wisconsin or Montana with very small populations have to make do with what the publishers provide. It is really an illusion that state legislatures set standards for schools, it is really mostly Texas. This is why the Daughters of the Confederacy were so successful spreading their propaganda as fact. Asking Barton to set standards is just a continuation of the propaganda machine.
It's not as though Texas is poor in quality universities, either. Rice University is highly ranked, and though it's been a while, it was among the places I was considering as an engineering school.
This business of putting ideology over factual education isn't going to hammer just the Lone Star State. It will damage this country and its reputation in the world for years to come.
It will also ruin it's economy. Less educated people, less middle class, less taxpayers. Economy 101.
Even agriculture require a degree and knowledge in soil chemistry and composition*
* Mandatory for the most basic landscaping degree here. For the bac pro, you need to learn everything about irrigation and sprinklers and more.
"Manganese - a lot people don't even know what that is."
Aren’t they the people who live in Manga? One of the shithole countries.
Can I live in an isekai manga where I'm magically trnsported out of the US, please
I don’t know what an isekai manga is but, to the extent of my powers, your wish is granted.
Allons, tu peux fer mieux que ça.
You can't do better than a Carl Spackler quote.
That doesn't tin a bell.
You can't eat sizzle. You CAN eat steak (even vegetarian steak, if such a thing exists! 😁).
I am sorry to tell you this but cows being vegetarians, there is no carnivorous steak 😁
MOO, baby! 🐮
You asked for it.
https://youtu.be/FQMbXvn2RNI
Rice is private, and was funded (at least for the first few decades) by a massive endowment - zero to do with the State of Texas' spending or priorities on education. Though that's a quibble. UT Austin and A&M are both good schools that are funded by the state.
I don't think the issue is with whether Texas is willing to provide good University education for the upper class Texas kids who do well in HS. They are. This issue is how much Texas is willing to educate the lower and middle classes so that they have a better chance of *getting into* places like Rice, UTA, or A&M. The answer seems to be "not very."
.