Michael Wynne - Attorney Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sounds like one of my college professors. Seven twenty three
is the time here in Houston's morning News. Well, Governor
Greg Abbott wants to do something about that about I
think he's enough of a realist to know that without
some sort of oversight, these DEI programs and other things
that the state has tried to weed out of our
higher education are going to continue to exist as long

(00:22):
as they can get away with doing it. So the
idea behind having this new office to deal with this
is to make sure these things get investigated. On Thursday,
he appointed Brandon Simmons as Texas' first higher education ombudsman.
Join us talk about it. His attorney, Michael Wynn Michael,
I think this is a good first step if you
really want to police this, because somebody has to investigate,

(00:44):
because if they don't, it will just continue.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah. Simmons is a great choice. He is educated at
Berkeley Stanford Law School. He's a venture capitalist and corporate lawyer.
Far from a hotbed of conservatism, and we have plenty
of them throughout the state and insurance and other areas
of law, health care, and he serves as an intermediary

(01:09):
between the public and the government, helps avoid a slew
of lawsuits, but is in a position to provide information
on what's permissible and what's not permissible. This is provided
for the underlying legislation last year. It's not a new development.
The governor has taken a non political person, you know,

(01:32):
to implement and oversee this matter.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's a rare thing these days. A non political person.
Let's say he gets a complaint, he investigates the complaint,
he finds the complaint is legitimate, take it from there.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
What happens next, Okay, a further investigation. They're subject to
a fine and are required to remedy the situation within
a certain reasonable time period, I think in six months.
It's important to bearing mine too that you know, Texas
has several, i think the leading top tier universities in

(02:06):
the country. We didn't get there by micromanagement doctor managing curriculum.
These matters can still be taught, you know, universities can
still consider them in recruitment. But what's gone is the
mandatory mandatory training and merit. And we're going back to
based selection of leaders and administrators and our public school

(02:32):
systems and what happens, Yes, there's corrective action taken and
defined suspension of state funds if you don't follow the law.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, fair enough. At the end of the day, it
sounds like what you're saying though, is that fundamentally this
doesn't really change a higher education in Texas's doctor to
change the curriculum is not going to prevent people from
taking these types of courses. It's just the Dumbi's going
to be forced to take them anymore.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's correct. And then also in the administration, who gets hired,
who doesn't, who gets admitted to the schools and who doesn't,
those kinds of decisions are going to go back to
what they should be, which is merits based instead of
forcing these kind of training on everyone or mandatory sort

(03:22):
of videos and such you have to watch in order
to keep your jobs. So it's it's many many states
are doing this, or the Texas is taking the lead,
and actually, you know, providing an ombudsman or i should say,
an intermediary to help explain the law to universities students
who have questions.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Okay, Michael, thank you appreciate it. Michael Wynn, he's an attorney.
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