Michigan funds public schools, Texas gives them unlicensed chaplains

One of those things is indoctrination

May 12, 2023

Welcome to a Thursday evening edition of Progress Report.

Did you see Donald Trump on CNN last night? Yeah, me neither. The network’s defense of its big, calamitous town hall on Wednesday was that it “made news,” which tells you a lot about where the political media is these days.

I hardly pine for the preservation of “objective” journalism, which normalizes and advances extremism by being congenitally unable to make even the most basic moral assessments, but even worse is the self-obsessed strain of cable TV news that seeks to proactively shape narratives by becoming part of them.

It’s a cynical, disastrous cycle, and totally indefensible when it’s done in service of unleashing a slightly new version of Donald Trump’s tired old schtick and claiming that it’s something the world just needs to hear.

Here’s what qualifies as making news here: Tonight, we’re trying out a new format that should make the newsletter easier and quicker to read while remaining just as informative (or even more so). Let me know what you think!

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What We’re Tracking

Ohio: House Republicans on Wednesday voted to move forward with a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to pass future constitutional amendments.

As a result, Ohioans will vote in August on whether to raise the threshold for amending the constitution from a simple majority to 60% approval. Getting the election scheduled for August was imperative for Republicans, who want to deflate the momentum of progressive activists that are closing in on putting an abortion rights amendment on the ballot in November.

The constitutional amendment referendum in August is going to be one of the biggest elections of the summer. Conservatives are bankrolled by billionaire megadonor Richard Uihlein; the Vote No campaign will have to be far more of a grassroots operation, so feel free to donate here.

Arizona: The Republican House majority voted to approve the budget deal that their party leadership struck with Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs earlier this week.

The budget doesn’t do anything to cap, much less roll back, the enormous private school voucher program that is siphoning off more and more public education funding in Arizona and rerouting but to weird religious schools and for-profit institutions.

While most Democratic Party officials, lawmakers, and allies were pissed off at that aspect of the budget when it was first released to the public, many of them in the House eventually had their arms twisted into supporting the budget. It contains a variety of infrastructure projects that see enter the pot, and new reporting requirements and the promise of a House oversight committee on the school vouchers gave them some cover.

Not everyone caved, though.

“I have seen budgets in the past when we’ve had Republican governors,” said Democratic state Rep. Cesar Aguilar. “It has always been given to Democrats in the last minute. Today, many of us Democrats helped Gov. Hobbs get elected, and I personally thought maybe this year wouldn’t be a lot different. But that is not the case. Democrats seem to be in the same boat as if we would have had a Republican governor.”

If only Democrats had a few ruthless political leaders that played hardball to deliver on their promises.

Texas: The state Senate will vote on the dreaded Death Star preemption bill on Friday. If it passes, you can bet that Gov. Greg Abbott will enthusiastically sign it.

The legislature earlier this week voted to approve an insane bill that will allow public schools to replace counselors with unlicensed religious chaplains. They’re also working to pass the bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom.

I was not exaggerating when I said far-right Christofascism is swallowing us whole.

New Good News

Texas: Speaking of Greg Abbott and school vouchers, the Governor’s push to bring Arizona’s school privatization hit something of a brick wall.

Rural lawmakers have long opposed voucher programs because take away money from the public schools that are often one of their districts’ biggest employers and community focal points. Abbott’s voucher plan managed to pass the state Senate this session, but earlier this week, the House shot down an attempt to push a very different version of the bill through committee with no real advanced warning.

Michigan: Public schools in Michigan should soon begin receiving a “transformative” amount of help from the state legislature.

The state House and Senate this week passed massive school aid bills, both of which offer students and teachers a giant boost after years of GOP underfunding. Here are the highlights of the two bills’ crossover points:

Like a Michigan House plan that was approved a day before, the Senate plan includes increased per-pupil funding, plus major spending to provide school meals to all students, and to increase funding for at-risk students and students with special education needs. The budgets also include significant increases in spending for early childhood education, programs to help students get back on track academically, mental health programs, and career and technical education.

Each plan also ups the money sent to school districts per at-risk student, though the House version would provide significantly more. Credit to the state Senate for cutting down the funding for cyber charter schools, which tend to be total scams.

The two chambers will have to reconcile the differences between their bills before a final draft gets sent to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Colorado: Though they failed to move on real affordable housing reform and passed a package of gun laws weakened by a lack of assault weapon ban, Colorado Democrats can claim some big accomplishments on the environmental legislative front this session.

Gov. Jared Polis signed into law Thursday a package of bills that includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100% come 2050, a program to automate and streamline local solar energy permitting, encourage geothermal heating and cooling and a tax credit package to incentivize more electric vehicles.

One of the new laws will limit what residents pay in utility bills, which could provide a modicum of relief as their property taxes soar this year thanks to the skyrocketing increase in the value of their homes (see: failure on affordable housing reform).

Fresh Hell

Arkansas: The great Medicaid unwinding began last month, an occasion that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders evidently greeted like Christmas morning. The state booted nearly 73,000 people off the low-income insurance program in April, including 52,000 people who were kicked off due to some problems with their paperwork.

Read This

Swinging out of reach: Is North Carolina still a purple state, or is it regressing back to a red one? Population growth would suggest it could go blue, but after two rough elections, Republicans have a supermajority in the state legislature and a vicious new conservative state Supreme Court majority.

Huh, okay: It appears as if Americans are happier in their jobs now than they’ve been since the mid-1980s. Did not see that one coming! The crosstabs on the polling are interesting, at least.

Do Your Part

As we discussed above, activists hoping to preserve Ohio’s constitutional amendment system are going to need all the help they can get this summer. Every dollar counts!

Wait, Before You Leave!

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