Dan Patrick’s reign over the Senate Education Committee has been a fascinating mix of empathy and cruelty, peaceful agreement and hostile shouting matches. In some ways, not much has changed since his days as a hot-tempered outsider.
The Senate passed Sen. Dan Patrick’s major charter school reform bill Thursday afternoon, in a version far different from what Patrick introduced earlier this session.
Since Sandy Hook, a handful of Texas school districts have added policies letting some teachers carry guns—Patrick’s bill is meant to make that decision safer, so heat-packing teachers know what they’re getting into.
Is this the end of the nightmare factory called Dawson State Jail? On Monday, the state Senate Finance Committee recommended against renewing Texas’ contract [...]
It was a telling diversion in an otherwise agreeable budget meeting to watch a pair of Democratic senators try to make Patrick, the usually tight-fisted tea party favorite, defend the extra cost of his school reform plans.