The State of Texas: June 13, 2016

Quote of the Day

“They’re trying to work out something right now where we go play the Aggies.”

—Longhorns football coach Charlie Strong to the Houston Touchdown Club, the Austin American-Statesman reported on Friday. Pretty much everyone thinks the Texas vs. Texas A&M rivalry will make its way back to the football field sooner rather than later. But the university later walked back on Strong’s statement, claiming that there are no formal talks to schedule games between the schools. Looks like that Longhorn-Aggie hate will have to wait a little longer before it can play out on the gridiron again.

Daily Roundup

Twitter Fingers
Shortly after news of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando broke on Sunday, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick published a Tweet and a Facebook post quoting a Bible verse that pretty much made it seem like he thought God was justifiably punishing the LGBTQ community. According to the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, 50 people were murdered in the club, making it the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history. “Do not be deceived,” the verse says. “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” The backlash against Patrick on social media was swift, condemning the post as insensitive and hurtful, according to the Texas Tribune. Patrick deleted the social media posts by eleven a.m., and a spokesman released a statement saying that the post was unrelated to Orlando and had been “designed and scheduled” last Thursday. A little later, Patrick released a more complete statement that was one-third non-apology, one-third soapbox sermon and one-third travel postcard. “I’m actually on an island. The Internet is slow,” Patrick wrote in the statement. “…Let me be clear, I didn’t pull down the FB post & tweet because God’s word is wrong. His word is never wrong…I took it down to stop the hateful comments and the misinformation being spread of God’s message to all of us—straight or gay.” Remember, this is coming from the guy who is currently leading a campaign based on fear and misinformation in an attempt to keep transgender people from using public restrooms.

STAAR Scrapped
The STAAR statewide standardized tests were so screwed up this year that the Texas Education Agency decided that the results just won’t count for fifth and eighth graders. Pretty much everything that could go wrong during the STAAR rollout did. Thousands of test-takers had their answers wiped out, some packets had questions with no correct answer, and some tests were delivered to the wrong districts. Superintendents across the state were understandably pretty upset. Students in fifth and eighth grade are supposed to pass the tests to move up to the next grade, but this year, they won’t have to. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said the decision was made because of “ongoing reporting issues” with the test vendor, Educational Testing Service, and he promised to “hold [them] accountable,” according to the Texas Tribune. The Dallas Morning News reported that Morath wouldn’t comment on whether the state was considering filing a lawsuit against the apparently incompetent testing service provider.

Bearing Down
After Baylor University essentially cleaned house following a widespread sexual assault scandal, the university announced on Friday that it would begin to implement the recommendations made in an independent report by the Philadelphia-based law firm Pepper Hamilton, according to the Waco Tribune. Baylor has a long way to go: the Pepper Hamilton report included 105 recommendations, and the school’s interim president said that it has adopted all of them as mandates. Baylor has so far resisted pressure from alumni, faculty and students to release the entire report, which found the university completely and utterly failed to respond to allegations sexual violence. The school has set up a pair of task forces to lead twelve implementation teams made up of administrators, faculty, and staff, focusing on separate areas including athletics, the university police department, and the campus’s “culture and climate.” Based on the focus areas of the different teams, Baylor seems set for a university-wide overhaul.