2019 Legislative Session Update for Victims and Service Providers

2021 Legislative Session Open Government Update

The Biden Administration recently acceded to criticism from Attorney General Ken Paxton and other attorneys general regarding a new regulatory proposal restricting public charter school grants. 

In a recent Oklahoma-led letter to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), several states argued that two proposed changes to a federal charter school program would decrease the educational opportunities for students in areas with underperforming schools. Under a proposed community impact analysis requirement, an applicant trying to open or expand a charter school would have been required to demonstrate demand through over-enrollment in local public schools. But this requirement fails to consider evidence that students and parents demand high quality education due to the public schools’ poor performance as much or more than due to their over-enrollment. Additionally, a proposed requirement that a charter school partner with a public school as a condition of participation would have unfairly penalized the charter school and given low-performing public schools a potential veto over the charter school’s funding 

In light of the pushback from Attorney General Paxton and others, the DOE removed both plan provisions.  

Attorney General Paxton has joined an Oklahoma-led cert-stage amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that extended excessive deference to federal agencies.

Attorney General Paxton sent a letter to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona pushing back against an ill-advised proposed federal rule that redefines sex based on “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” rather than objective reproductive biology. 

Attorney General Paxton has signed on as a supporter of the Women’s Bill of Rights, a document developed by the Independent Women’s Voice urging codification of the common sense and reality-based definition of a woman.

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