Category Archives for Dan Patrick

CSCOPE Witch Hunt Flares Up Again: Sen. Patrick and AG Abbott Target Educators

Just two months after gutting a curriculum tool that nearly 900 Texas school districts were using, state Sen. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have decided they’re not done harassing educators and wasting taxpayer dollars. Last week Patrick called on the Texas State Auditor’s Office to review the operations of the Texas Education […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, Greg Abbott, State Board of Education, TFN, Thomas Ratliff
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David Barton Rewrites His Own History, Dan Patrick Doesn’t Seem to Notice

Following is even more proof that self-styled “historian” David Barton is little more than a propaganda artist: now he’s rewriting his own history. Yet Barton’s distorted versions of history are still getting traction on the political right, as Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston demonstrated last week. Let’s start with Barton. The president of […]

Also posted in church and state, David Barton, TFNEF
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Texas Sen. Dan Patrick Rejects Separation of Church and State

Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, thinks he’s somehow qualified to tell local school districts and teachers what instructional materials they can use in their classrooms, but he doesn’t have a very good understanding of the basics of American constitutional freedoms. Speaking at the Mims Baptist Church in Conroe this past weekend, the Houston Press […]

Also posted in church and state, TFNEF
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Texas SBOE Vice Chair Ratliff Rips Sen. Patrick Again Over CSCOPE Witch Hunt: Bullying and Burning Books

Texas State Board of Education Vice Chairman Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, has already made clear his disgust over the political witch hunt that forced the state’s Education Service Centers to stop writing lesson plans in their CSCOPE curriculum management system. In May, for example, he tore into Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, for […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, TFNEF, Thomas Ratliff
| 8 Comments |


Dan Patrick Shades the Truth about His CSCOPE Witch Hunt

The right-wing witch hunt over the CSCOPE curriculum tool used in hundreds of Texas public and private schools has been filled with bizarre distortions from the beginning. But weeks after the state’s Education Service Centers bowed to political pressure and announced that they would stop writing lesson plans for school districts, state Sen. Dan Patrick […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, TFNEF
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TFN President Criticizes Sen. Patrick for Harassing School Districts and Teachers Over CSCOPE

On Sunday, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, posted on his Facebook page to ask his followers to report to him about teachers who use CSCOPE in their lessons. Here’s TFN’s response, as issued to the press this morning. Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is calling on state Sen. Dan Patrick, the Houston Republican who chairs […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, TFNEF
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Texas SBOE Member Ratliff Tears into Sen. Patrick on CSCOPE Decision

Thomas Ratliff’s defeat of creationist Don McLeroy in the 2010 Republican Primary for the District 9 seat on the State Board of Education was an important step toward getting politics out of Texas public school classrooms. Now Ratliff, who currently serves as the state board’s vice chairman, has released a blistering critique of state Sen. […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, TFN, Thomas Ratliff
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Witch Hunt Takes Down CSCOPE

Once again, politics trumps education in Texas. State Sen. Dan Patrick, the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee, sounded downright gleeful today in making a surprise announcement that the state’s Education Service Centers will no longer provide lessons in their CSCOPE curriculum management system. “The era of CSCOPE lesson plans has come to […]

Also posted in CSCOPE, TFN
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Texas Sen. Wendy Davis Schools Senate Ed Committee Chair on Voucher Bill

For months state Sen. Dan Patrick — the Republican chairman of the Texas Senate Education Committee — has insisted that the Legislature should divert millions of dollars from public education to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools. Sen. Patrick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst even held a press conference at a parochial school in […]

Also posted in 2013 Texas Legislature, TFN, vouchers, Wendy Davis
| 10 Comments |


Not with a Bang, But with a Whimper

The wait is finally over. After months of promises and grandstanding, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, with only hours remaining before the bill-filing deadline, finally fulfilled his pledge to file a school voucher bill. If you’ve been listening to Sen. Patrick since last August, you would think that this moment would be met with fanfare and […]

Also posted in Texas Legislature, TFN, vouchers
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