The Senate Committee on State Affairs is meeting on Monday, and legislators will be discussing Senate Joint Resolution 34. This resolution proposes a constitutional amendment “protecting the right of parents to raise their children.”
Blaise Gainey, who covers the Texas Legislature for the Texas Newsroom, said it is not entirely clear what that means.
“I thought parents right now had all the rights that were necessary,” he said. “This is basically just codifying what’s currently in law already in the U.S. Constitution. So it’s interesting.
I wonder if they see repeals coming up or judges making different decisions in the future on these things and just want to get it into state law. But I think these things can always be tricky. You never know exactly what’s tucked in there that they ultimately hope to pass in the future.”
The resolution was introduced by State Sen. Bryan Hughes, and Gainey said the senator will likely speak on what his vision is for the state constitutional amendment during the hearing Monday.
“From the analysis on it, it just says it’s putting what’s currently already in law, codifying it in the Texas Constitution,” Gainey said. “Because when U.S. judges change, sometimes laws can change. And apparently this is necessary to get on the books now.”
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Gainey said the language of parental rights echoes the conservative position on education — including the argument for school vouchers.
“It’s interesting because Sen. Bryan Hughes has filed something like this in the past, or at least amendments relating to, as a parent, being able to control the decisions your child makes when it comes up to education, health care, moral and religious training, all sorts of things,” Gainey said. “So this seems definitely tied to education, health care, all sorts of things that parents would be deciding for their child.”
Gainey said he is waiting to see what else comes up in the Senate this week, as the upper chamber continues to move quickly on the governor’s priority issues.
“I do expect something to come up,” he said. “Right now, nothing is filed. But my guess is just like we saw with bail reform and other legislation, as soon as it gets filed, it’ll get a hearing in the next committee meeting. And so we could see something pushed through this week.
So far, school choice, bail reform and property tax — which were all three emergency items from the governor — have already passed in the Senate.”
The House is working on similar issues, just at a slower pace, Gainey said.
“Committee assignments were not that long ago,” Gainey said. “So this is the committee’s first week. And so they’re just mostly doing organizational things. My guess is early next week we’ll see some of those bills start to get hearings.”