Paul Bettencourt - Texas State Senator Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, it's amazing. Yeah, we talked about virtual reality
all the time and getting kids off their cell phones
and all that, but one area of virtual reality is
just taken off here in Texas virtual school. In fact,
it's grown by one in the last ten years. State
Senator Paul Bettencourt joins us he wrote a bill about it.

(00:21):
How important is is virtual school just here to stay
at this point? Senator Yeah, Jimmy.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Basically what happened is we plunged everybody into virtual schools
and COVID well in the wrong way, all across the state. Now,
what we saw where about ten percent of the kids
could take off like a rocket ship on coursework, and
others could actually pick up a class or two, like

(00:47):
if they needed French, and you know, in a small
rural town. And and so what we've done is put
together a hybrid bill that says, Okay, if you want
to use virtual schools, here's the best practices across the country.
We did a commission on it per year and what
we passed the bill, and we've got sixty two thousand

(01:08):
students using it. We expect that it will be over
one hundred thousand just in three years.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Are they using it through their own schools. I know
there's some schools that have virtual school capabilities and some
schools who don't. It costs more money, obviously to have
a virtual school.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
So who's funding that, Well, that's the state, Okay, so
we're paying for it. But we're also opening it up
now to where every school has access to this, and
I think that's important because then you could blend these
curriculum with the needs of the kids and you know,
school by school, and that's the right decision. So we're

(01:44):
getting a lot of positive feedback from it. In fact,
it's already been made model legislation by the American Legislation
Exchange Council. So I think we're on my track to
give students and families and parents an option on taking
courses that can help them get started in a college

(02:05):
career or a military career or whatever career they need.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Okay, Well, I got to ask you about what's been
going on in Austin because the biggest story, obviously is
the runaway Democrats, and we're hearing all these mixed message
stories today about they're coming back on Friday, or they're
going to come back for the second session, they're giving up,
they're capitulating, and then no, we're not, We're not going
to come back. What are you hearing?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, first off, what we had in the Senate yesterday
is we had a walkout nine of the eleven senators
and this is headed by Carol Alvarado because she's Democratic
Caucus chair. They did a walkout on the redistricting bill. Now,
all that did was basically the bill passed nineteen to
two immediately, but they got coast to coast headlines, so

(02:51):
they grabbed the microphone and you've got the spotlight. Now
the real action is in the House, and we've heard
everything just like you have Jimmy this morning. However, there
seems to be a possibility that people are saying, well,
we can't get back by Friday, but we can get
back by Saturday. Now that we give them the House

(03:15):
four days to get everything done. And the Senate has
passed everything. You know, I passed a property tax bill.
You know, we've talked about virtual education earlier. We just
passed a great bill about a through f and which
is restoring public education as well as eliminating the star test.

(03:37):
We got all these bills that are already at the House.
But they can't get a signed until the House gets
a quorum. So we're gonna wait and see because the
government made its real clear that boom the moment that
we can't you know, the House can't finish their business. Bang,
and there's going to be a new special session, right.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yeah, without any time in between. So there'll be no
running or hiding again, will there.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now the quote is nanoseconds in between, that's what he says.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
So basically, I'm sure the law enforcement will be there
too if the Democrats do come back, to make sure
they stay where they are once the new session is called,
don't you.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, well, i'll tell you. The Speaker's already said, once
they get a quorum, the doors are locked in the house.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
And so everybody has to pass the bills.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
It gonna be like a papal conclave. All right, all right, Senator,
good to hear from you. As always. You take care
of that is State Senator Paul Benton Court