Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday he wants to end tenure for professors at public universities in Texas to prevent them from teaching critical race theory.
The lieutenant governor made the comments during a Friday press conference days after the University of Texas at Austin passed a faculty resolution supporting faculty rights to teach critical race theory. As lieutenant governor, Patrick serves as the president of the Texas Senate and therefore is heavily involved in legislative matters, including efforts to ban the controversial theory that says American institutions and culture are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities.
Patrick said that the professors at UT “don’t understand that we in the Legislature represent the people of Texas” and “we are those who distribute taxpayer dollars. We are the ones who pay their salaries, parents are the ones who pay tuition. Of course we’re going to have a say in what the curriculum is,” the Dallas Morning News reported.
OVER 200 COLLEGES REQUIRE STUDENTS TO UNDERGO CRITICAL RACE THEORY-BASED TRAINING, REPORT FINDS
Patrick, a Republican, is running for reelection as lieutenant governor, and he has made opposing critical race theory a part of his campaign after successfully working to ban the theory in K-12 public schools last year.
His new push to ban faculty tenure came days after he tweeted a response to the UT Austin faculty resolution.
“I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick said. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed.”
I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT. https://t.co/2W7mb3RVuN
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 15, 2022
The nonbinding resolution says it “affirms the fundamental rights of faculty to academic freedom in its broadest sense, inclusive of research and teaching of race and gender theory” in the face of legislative efforts to ban both.
The lieutenant governor said that professors who want to teach critical race theory should “go to a private school” and raise their own funds.
“I’m not going to pay for that nonsense,” he said.
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Banning critical race theory in public schools has been a major component of the 2021-2022 legislative calendar in Republican-controlled states. Numerous state legislatures have introduced bans, and several others, including Texas, have enacted them into law.
