A battle over academic freedom is being waged in Texas, where the legislature is poised to give the state power to screen faculty, programs and courses in one of the country’s largest public university systems, and experts say the outcome could reverberate for higher education nationwide.
I remember in the 1980s when the state of Texas decided to use its oil revenues to build a world-class public university system. Sad to see it go the way of so many other Republican-controlled institutions. I’m not sure why they hate America so deeply but clearly they do.
I’ve often wondered that myself. I’ve also wondered why Rupert Murdock hates America so much.
All those schools will shut down
That’s it! As a university faculty member, I would argue that they’ve just violated the “Sancrosanct Zone“ of Academic Freedom in Higher Education. This can NOT stand or EVER be tolerated in our country.
Texas: where the malignantly ignorant make teaching truth illegal.
🤬
Keep Texas stupid?
This is what you oligarchs want. You want people dumb so you can take their meager savings and buy more yachts.
😡
Universities are the bastion of all evil. They blah blah about science and evidence. On our side, we believe in our gut and the Bible. The world was better when white Christian males ruled the world.
Sounds like there is hope for the EU: bsky.app/profile/vond...
We have an Authoritarian Regime here in America
The end of education in the Death Star state!
A clear violation of 1A rights and academic freedom. But go on, push out the best faculty and students out of Texas and into more welcoming states.
Make Texas even more dumb.
Please tell me why news outlets aren’t reporting on this: electiontruthalliance.org/eta
So WAPO is complicit in Fing things up so they can have stuff like this to report on?
They don't want to end ideological bias, but create it. The goal is to turn universities into right-wing think tanks.
Texas is a shithole and their voters are fucking racist fascists. I won't even change planes in that sludge pond.
I thought Conservatives were the champions of free speech? Every day, we get closer and closer to outright fascism.
Sadly, the entire manga movement only believes that constitutional rights apply to white people. And mostly to Christians or rather protestant Christians. The similarities they have to the people who murdered Kennedy in 63 are frightening.
Conservatives are about you following what they believe is right, they were never about discussion and debat based in arguments and ‘agree to disagree’. Aging, grey haired, white men dominated and controlled institutions
“Free speech”, meaning “their speech”. Other opinions, not so much.
This is outright Fascism, but we still have a judiciary. We are in the brief period where we can stop it if The People have enough will. If people don’t hit the street en masse, we will fall. Then, the regime will start systematically killing people.
Stop the parade! We the people have to do it, America needs to continue to be the beacon of freedom not country of tyranny! Ban Billionaires not books!
I'm fine with the fascist states dumbing down their colleges. Keep them ignorant and regressive. The rest of the country can provide high quality education, producing rational, forward-thinking, smart people who will ultimately move this country beyond 1940.
Um, that's a pretty fascist thing to think. Just fyi. Whenever you reach the point of just writing-off whole populations by judgment of the merit of the actions of a few, particularly when it means you would be able to benefit from their suffering, they've got ya. Texas deserves better.
Correct. Faculty, programs and courses will be screened for proper loyalty to Dear Leader/Fuhrer, to make sure that nobody is getting the idea that fascism isn't what God wants for America. Now UT students can have classes picked for them by Nazis Greg "Dr. Strangelove" Abott and Cyclops Paxson.
By trying to "remove the ideological bias" of universities, the government will introduce ideological doctrines. This is just another symptom of American anti-intellectualism with its long tradition in our country.
Sounds similar to Due Process....I dunno???
Who is going to let the air out of the tires on this operation?
How come Texas can make decisions for the whole country but Colorado can't? #14Amendment #SCOTUS
Und… Du vill like das!
It's about time. Too much education is a bad thing!
Shame on you Texas!
More people packing up and leaving this backward state.
People should leave the backward red states and move to blue states.
It’s going to reverberate by ending higher education in Texas
This is funny coming from a Nazi propaganda rag controlled by a fascist billionaire who determines “news” based on the demented whims of his Führer.
Aren't Texans embarrassed and ashamed to live in such a backward state? That legislature should be driven out like cattle.
I love the way they label the bill making it look like a good thing. When it’s pure censorship of first amendment rights.
Kinda like Citizens United. When it’s anything but.
Whelp!! That will really screw over their academic rankings.
Thanks @washingtonpost.com for helping America get here so that little circumcised prick can have more tax breaks. #EatTheRich
it's not a battle over academic freedom, it's government overreach to the tune of fascism
Ohio is moving on this also. Right wing indoctrination is the goal. Get young minds in line before they have a chance to think for themselves.
Texas where Intelligence goes to die.
Texas like our pres have lost their minda.
If Galileo can overcome the oppression of the Catholic Church, hopefully intelligence science and technology can overcome the oppression of Texas state government.🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦🇫🇷 And half of Congress and all of the first felon administration.
Why do conservatives, Republicans, fascists and Nazis have such fear of the truth? Is there ignorance that self limiting? Communists and radical left-wingers are the same way. How do you keep a wave upon the sand? Trying to control things that cannot be controlled is a dangerous waste of time.
Sounds kinda a bit like communism. Just a little, maybe? /s
Ya’ll come get stupid. Glorious Leader 101, The Gospel of Money AP, Back in my day Lab where you just indiscriminately taste test random unlabeled powders and liquids. Now with less measuring and mask free!🤡
CANCEL YOUR WAPO SUBSCRIPTIONS 🗞
The dumbing down of America not only continues but accelerates. www.ngrippel.com/ngr-politics...
I am surprised Bezos let this story run. Maybe it's his way of indirectly highlighting the direction Texas is going and others will surely follow. Get out if you can, before they force you to stay, as they need slave labour. I am not joking someone has to do the jobs the poor whites won't even do.
Sounds about whyte
Make America Dumb Again is a new slogan.
A not good - in fact direly bad idea in such a pro-fossil and climate warming science state.
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More WP scare mongering. The truth really does die in the darkness of the WP offices.
I believe there are athletes who get scholarships to play sports, but are in school to learn. When these persuers of real education get recruited to school teams, they have options. They need to go to a school that thinks the history of their family is valued, not denigrated.
That goes for anyone wanting to pay to go to higher education I know I wouldn't go personally ..for sure not pay for it as the school education will suffer so that will follow for everyone Brain drain in real time j/s Smart ones will pick better schools
No longer Universities, just foot ball teams.
Enrollment and endowment will drop, reputation will suffer. But yes, good football and frats.
What we need that cracker Abbott to do is start messing with college football- THEN there might be protests
Evil demons
Aspiring social work grad school student here. If there is anyone else going to college for social work, DO NOT GO TO A RED STATE. The entire field of social work is basically all DEI and learning about oppression and the dirty side of history lol. I’m stuck in a red state but if you can move, move
It’s already happened in Florida. Maybe investigate that, too?
The ignorant are afraid of everything they don't understand.
Texas has earned its one-star state reputation. One star is too many, IMO.
Resist
This is unconstitutional by every measure. Harvard should pay close attention This infringes on Academic Freedom @harvard.edu @aclu.org @aclutx.bsky.social @eliaslawgroup.bsky.social @democracydocket.com @marcelias.bsky.social
Come join us, we could use more provinces.
Remember voters, you get to screen your representatives. This way you can vote out intolerant Nazis and other pests.
A disgraceful state with a complicit electorate is the dumbest combination.
There are thousands of us in TX that haven't bought into that treasonous narrative. We're out in the streets every week.
Leave it to maga to turn higher education into lower.
Most these aholes went to college and they act like authoritarians. Soooo
Call it what it is @washingtonpost.com Nazi, fascist, thought police. Give it to the readers IN CONTEXT, while the GOP has been about suppressed speech and thought for years with zero evidence and only perverse anecdotal episodes, is now moving to do the exact thing they bitch about on Nazi scale.
Or, it could just make Texas look more stupid than it already is.
Dictatorship …
Dear universities, resist like you should… because next thing could be them ordering you to teach that the Earth is flat 🙄
If you live in Texas get your education elsewhere….
Buncha good-ol'-boys apickin' out yer curry-iculum. Wut could MAGA think be goin' wrong?!?
Considering who’s elected in the state houses of Texas, no surprise. The most corrupt state other than Missouri and Florida.
Oh baby you haven't seen the supermajority in the TN legislature just being super openly racist on the floor towards black Dems etc.
We really must start paying more attention to who we are electing in our states, school boards, and PTA. We have openly racist people in the Senate and the Congress in Washington DC.
This is the lesson most of us have been trying to teach the whole time. Local government has the most control over your immediate reality.
That’s the long game of the pro life movement.
Arkansas and Mississippi have entered the chat.
Totally agree. Which hurts being a lifelong Missourian.
I call it misery instead of Missouri.
So we’re at the point where the state will literally be screening what gets taught to students because “liberty”…. Do I have that right?
Right. Just like rules that say you must give your employees bathroom breaks infringes upon your liberty as a business owner.
Horrific & despicable!
"You will learn what we allow you to learn" This is the end of Critical Thinking. Indoctrination instead of teaching how to use your brain to discern fact from fictions...
FL and now TX are gutting their public education so that only approved indoctrination courses are allowed. This is what is playing out in red states.
@mandiedunn.bsky.social send this to anyone that asks how you can be faculty in florida
Youre telling me the Texas govt is acting like an authoritarian regime once again? Shocking 😒
I thought Republicans were for downsizing government and less government interference????
Thank you for helping elect and continuing to support Dear Leader, WAPO! Good job! Democracy dies in darkness, right? 👏👏👏
Lol isn't Texas the big muh freedoms™ state?
As long as it's on the state level, go on with your bad self. Let the chips fall where they may.
Don't send your kids to Texas for school. They will come out dumber.
The freedom of speech crew sure want to control your speech.
And the police state gains momentum…..
Will much really change?
Wow - stay away from Texas schools
Everywhere controlled by Republicans is a pit. A ditch filled with ugliness and stupidity.
Some say that the Repub Party was killed by Nixon, W & Cheney. All the gd ppl were driven out by the lies & corruption of those individuals. It certainly is not the same party it was 50 years ago or even 30 years ago. Its name was co-opted by extremists & fascists. Mid America nds 2 realize that.
The Republican Party is now nothing but extremists and sniveling turds who go along to get along.
Well, I cannot disagree with that. If only 20 in the Senate and 50 in the house would stand up and do the right thing, America could be saved.
Haven't they been pushing for this for some years now?
If you want to STOP the Trump Christofascist Coup, TEXAS is ground zero youtu.be/7B3PTuADIHQ?...
Wherever and whenever this happens, remember WaPo, you are complicit. Your sin of omission made it easier for Trump to get elected and your normalizing of Republican fascism allows it to continue.
Follow the money.
UT and A&M are already losing some of their best professors over this.
People have lost their minds.
There will be a mass exodus of faculty from the UT system if this evil continues. Texas - feudal fascist state.
A lot of faculty are leaving FL universities too
Another reason to never. visit. Texas. (Or any red state.) They’re called flyover states for good reasons.
They’re using their ideological bias to fight an imagined ideological bias. What a fucked up state whose main claim to fame is the assassination of a president.
This needs to end.
The race to idiocracy is speeding up in Texas.
Texas has the lead. But every other state is not far behind.
There were some sort of bright spots in local elections of school boards in the DFW area.
Texas already influences school textbook publishing and censorship thereof.
How U.S.S.R. of Republicans running Texas.
Get ready for UT to be as academically sound as Liberty University
This HAS to be stopped and WILL be…at least at the Appellate and/or Supreme Court level.💯
Little or no government interference has done an about face 🤔
And we used to aspire to study in the USA. No more…
Sue to kingdom come.
shouldnt the state already have control of the state college?
Thanks to the first amendment the legislature doesn't have such a power to give anyone. They can all fuck right off.
Well, this will certainly ease many of our HR challenges. Whole boxes of CV’s can now be discarded without the slightest compunction.
The fun of owning the libs is only going to last Texas 5 to 10 years max. They’re not thinking far ahead when businesses have stopped coming to Texas because they can’t recruit good employees, and students avoid Texas universities because they know they’re not gonna get a good education.
This would be a terrible thing.
Fuck this! Fuck Texas!
Abbott is a tyrant and fascist collaborator.
Yes, he is. He tries to take advantage of his disability to make himself seem more human. It’s just like when the wizard stood behind the curtain or Miller stands behind or off to the side of the big desk.
A couple years ago I saw a pic of Abbott backstage with Clapton and Jimmy Vaughn. It’s plausible. But I still almost threw up in my mouth.
They'll stop when they realize it will mess up the football programs.
Every day I get more reasons to cross texass of my world tour
So much for quality higher education in Texas!
Dear God!
@mmasnick.bsky.social @eff.org
Didn’t the “conservatives “ keep blaming big government?
Learning from Florida.
What a bunch of assholes.
That’s really unfortunate, it’ll hurt UT’s credibility worldwide and through no fault of their own. I guess the Texas legislature wants to control what UT’s student body is exposed to. Like they need the Texas legislature to preemptively determine that for them.
A battle universities will lose because their executive boards are populated by trunp sycophants and cowards which is quite the coincidence because so is your board.
Chump is working to replace colleges' boards with people he approves of, even in blue states. This will be the downfall of public and private higher education in the USA. America is on the track to becoming dumbed down and poorly educated like what the GOP wants so people will always vote GOP.
As a 5th gen Texan & Univ TX trained, from Undergrad thru Med School, extremely disappointing to read this is the direction state is headed. My generation readily accepted that academic freedom was a hallmark of the rugged individualism of the Lone Star state. What a downfall for TX.
Well scratch Texas schools off!
MAGAs not so silent Civil War. Dems, silent.
We have lost our minds. They scream freedom but only want their version
They never propose that Christian colleges hire liberal atheist professors. How come?
Makes perfect sense for a state that just passed school choice. What do they say for PRIVATE universities?
Republicans need to control education so they can brainwash the populace.
But, wait, why don't they all just enroll in Bari Weiss' super cool "free speech" university????? How is enrollment doing there anyway? 🤣🤣
Don't bother Texans. You're already stupid enough.
I believe you left out a comma.
Sick. Very sickening
"Ending ideological bias" would rule out what they are trying to do, so by their own definition, it cannot be what they say it is. Don't need to go to University to understand that.
This has already happened ed in Florida and it hasn’t even been a big story. Wake up America. apple.news/ARdLWP4Q6QIu...
Already happened in Indiana too. indianacapitalchronicle.com/2025/05/01/i...
Thank you sir. The fascists move quickly. The national legacy media has aided and abetted them.
FL's state colleges and universities are turning into indoctrination centers for the GOP. So sad this is.
At this point I just want out of this imploding hell-hole of a country!
Texas already screens and modifies university textbooks and controls what gets printed.
Yup, PROJECT 2025 is being implemented as planned.
Some Tory Ministers wanted to do something similar, trying to identify anti-Brexit academics. They were given short-shrift.
The right is dead set against higher education. They cannot stand the idea that subjects are taught seeking truths no matter where they lead.
Ideological bias is never defined and refers to anything the scum wants it to. Republicans are scum. Texas republicans are the worst.
Stories like this make me wish that general Santa Ana had been more successful
Texas is just Fucked-Up!
The fascists are using taxpayer money to attack everything they can as quickly as possible so as to run resistance ragged and thin.
Global web icon TIME time.com What Trump's Win Means for Education Trump has pledged to dismantle the Department of Education, cut federal funding for schools teaching critical race theory, and bar transgender female athletes from participating in school...
Just rebrand it, Trump University of Texas 🙄
My kid knows there’s no way they are going to school in a red state.
We are now behaving like an authoritarian dictatorship! Shame on Texas!!
When they say "end ideological bias", they mean "replace imaginary ideological bias", of course...
They plan to replace ideological bias with ideological dogma.
Look at all those small government conservatives!
Freedom of education, learn about different opinions, how to listen, argue, discuss, deal with other views. Not state dictated directions about what’s good or bad, convenient for you, fitting your political or religious believes
I hate our state government so much. Abbott, Patrick, and Paxton are the worst human beings in the state
Well looks like higher enrollment in "blue" states going forward.
Well not if Chump gets his way with schools like Harvard. He wants ALL colleges even in blue states to bend to his will.
👀👆😳‼️‼️‼️
Good luck, Texas.
This is a national EMERGENCY!!! Non-partison public education is vital if we want to save our democracy.
Don't give in to the control freaks!
Academic freedom is too important for this kind of shit.
Should make recruiting top faculty interesting
Are there any constitutional amendments that might be helpful?
They do such a fine job with education in Texas that adult literacy is shockingly low and it is 50th in special education. Texas is anti-education, and designed to fail. They banned their own poet laureate.
I'm happy to go further and say, pregnant women should be given 2 votes as they are voting for 2 humans. Children should also be allowed to vote starting at age 14 if they are required to work in those red states. 1. Allow pregnant women to have 2 votes 2.Allow 14 year old to be new voting age
In other news, the battle of press-hating fascists against journalism has been waged so successfully that @washingtonpost.com editors never even considered running this story on the front page.
You can always count on WaPo to "both sides" every issue and empower fascists. This is one of a myriad of examples.
The Republicans want to dumb down our country - creating non- educated people who will agree with whoever is in Congress & the White House!! Shame shame know your name
If Texas wants to destroy higher education in that state, it's going to hurt and reverberate throughout the state economically
Texas style communism served with a side of ammo and bodily control.
I guess America spells freedom different than Texas. Texas do us all a favor and secede.
Guess Texas spells it Frei dumb
Sooo they want to indoctrinat not educate... got it.
@clairezagorski.bsky.social woah.
Making Texas even dumber.
Maybe if you fuckin cowards behaved like journalists BEFORE trump got back in I'd want to read more from you @washingtonpost.com , instead Jeff Bozos bent over for trump. Piss off.
Did Jeff Bezos tell you to publish this?