Texas Matters: Will Hurd runs for POTUS and Texas school finance is an ugly mess

Former San Antonio Rep. Will Hurd announced Thursday his bid to win the 2024 Republican nomination for President. And he is campaigning with a sharpened anti-Donald Trump message. However, he is entering a crowded field of a dozen candidates and Trump is the frontrunner. Polling shows Trump with a clear majority of Republican support, despite his indictments.

Hurd, a former undercover CIA officer, is critical of Trump. However, while he served in Congress representing the South Texas 23rd Congressional District, he voted for the Trump agenda more than 80 percent of the time. Hurd voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and for the Trump tax cuts. He also voted in favor of a national ban on abortion. But Hurd did stand up to Trump on his signature issue, the border wall.

Since leaving congress Hurd has been working in private industry specializing in cyber security and artificial intelligence, which he calls major threats to national security.

After declaring his candidacy for President Hurd spoke to Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies about his campaign and Trump.

Texas School Funding

Going into the legislative session many school districts in Texas were counting on the lawmakers to throw them a lifeline. There are hundreds of struggling school districts that have been withering for over a decade due to lack of funding. With an approximate $40 billion state budget surplus these troubled ISD’s thought there would be some relief coming. That didn’t happen.

School teachers didn’t receive overdue and needed raises, and school district facilities are showing decades of heavy wear and tear.

That legislative lifeline has yet to come. Instead, the Republican leadership is focused on tax cuts, but even that issue is hung up with Republican infighting.

Texas Monthly staff writer Forrest Wilder shows us the desperate need in rural West Texas ISD’s and helps us understand why Texas school finance is so complicated. His article is “Rural School Districts Are Facing Financial Ruin. Some State Officials Prefer It That Way.”