Dan Patrick

Sept. 18 (UPI) — Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh is to step down from his position, the school announced, making him the latest university executive to lose their job amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on left-leaning ideology being taught at education institutions.

The resignation of Welsh, a distinguished four-star Air Force pilot and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be effective Friday at 5 p.m., Texas A&M University System Chancellor Glenn Hegar announced Thursday.

“President Welsh is a man of honor who has led Texas A&M with selfless dedication,” Hegar said in a statement.

“We are grateful for his service and contributions. At the same time, we agree that now is the right moment to make a change and to position Texas A&M for continued excellence in the years ahead.”

Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican, celebrated Welsh’s resignation online, stating: “WE DID IT!”

“As the first elected official to call for him to be fired, this news is welcome, although over due. Now… END ALL EDI AND LGBTQ INDOCTRINATION IN TEXAS!!”

Welsh’s resignation comes on the heels of the school being pulled into a scandal around a professor discussing gender and sexuality in children’s literature during a children’s literature course.

On Wednesday, Harrison had shared an uncorroborated video of a student filming herself in a Texas A&M University classroom arguing with her professor, Melissa McCoul.

In the video, the female student references an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office recognizing only two genders defined at “conception.” She also references Trump administration moves to pause federal funding for schools that have policies that do not align with its own, including diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The video sparked backlash from Republicans, resulting in Welsh first firing two administrators followed by him later firing McCoul. He said the grounds of the firing were that the course contained content that was not included in the course curriculum. Course content “must match catalog descriptions,” he explained.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and President Donald Trump ally, had called for McCoul’s firing.

After the firings, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, suggested Welsh to be fired over his handling of the situation and his “ambivalence on the issue.”

“Most parents, students and Aggie alumni expect Texas A&M to reflect the values of our state and our nation as well as A&M’s rich history,” Patrick said in a statement late last week.

“If President Welsh will not or cannot reflect those values, then change needs to happen.”

Since Trump returned to the White House in January, he has led a charge to remove left-leaning ideology from government, public and private spaces via his executive powers.

He has targeted dozens of universities, in particular so-called elite institutions, with executive orders, lawsuits, reallocation of resources and threats over a swath of allegations, from anti-Semitism to employing diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Critics and Democrats have accused the Trump administration of using these allegations to coerce schools under threat of stringent punishments, including fines sometimes exceeding $1 billion, to adopt his far-right policies.

While some schools, including Columbia University, Brown University, and others, have reached settlements with the Trump administration, others, such as Harvard, are challenging the White House in court.

On Tuesday, a coalition of faculty, staff, students and labor unions sued the Trump administration to have the courts stop the president’s attempt “to require that universities conform to his worldview.”

Welsh is the latest university exeutive to either be fired or resign amid the second Trump administration.

Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University, resigned earlier this month after the Trump administration froze some $790 million in research funding for the school on accusations of ignoring Jewish students amid pro-Palestine protests.

James Ryan, president of the University of Virginia, resigned late June as the Trump administration demanded he step down as part of a settlement of a civil rights investigation over the school’s DEI policies.

Katrina Armstrong, interim president of Columbia University, resigned in late March, among others.

1 of 2 | Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks with reporters outside the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 5. On Wednesday, he signed an executive order banning the sale of hemp-based THC products to people under 21 years old. File Photo by Francis Chung/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 10 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Wednesday banning sales of hemp-based THC products to people under the age of 21 amid an ongoing push for state lawmakers to establish THC regulations.

Abbott called the order “safety for kids, freedom for adults,” in a post on X.

The order directs the Department of State Health Services and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to ban sales of hemp-based THC products to those under 21 years old and requires retailers to verify age with a government-issued ID. Retailers that don’t follow this law will lose their retailer’s license.

Additionally, the DSHS must review existing regulations on hemp-based THC products, including labeling requirements. The DSHS, TABC and the Department of Public Safety must also partner with local law enforcement to increase enforcement of the new law.

Though the Texas Senate — backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — approved of a more sweeping ban on the sale of THC products in any form, lawmakers failed to agree on a final law to regulate the products. Abbott vetoed the full ban, seeking a less restrictive law.

“Texas will not wait when it comes to protecting children and families,” Abbott said in a statement announcing his executive order. “While these products would still benefit from the kind of comprehensive regulation set by the Texas Legislature for substances like alcohol and tobacco, my executive order makes sure that kids are kept safe and parents have peace of mind now, and that consumers know the products they purchase are tested and labeled responsibly.”

Abbott also directed the DSHS, TABC and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to study a framework for wider THC regulations based on Texas House Bill 309 filed in August. The legislation, submitted by Texas Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican, seeks to create a Texas Hemp Council to regulate products derived from hemp, including food items and beverages.

May 4 (UPI) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday signed a controversial $1 billion bill into law that provides parents with vouchers to send their children to private school.

“I am signing this law that will ensure Texas families, whose children can no longer be served by the public school assigned to them, have the choice to take their money and find the school that is right for them,” Abbott said in a news release from his office.

The law will provide parents of Texas students with about $10,000 per year that can be put toward private school tuition and other educational expenses, or $2,000 for parents who choose to homeschool their children.

Supporters of the Texas Education Freedom Act have heralded it as a way to give parents the freedom to give their children a better education, while critics are concerned that the voucher system would undermine the public education system and investments in it, as well as exacerbate wealth inequality in the Lone Star State.

Still, Abbott was surrounded by throngs of parents and students from across the state as he signed the bill into law at the governor’s mansion. It is among the most significant pieces of legislation signed by the governor since he took office in 2015.

“I have been an advocate for school choice long before I was elected lieutenant governor,” said Abbott’s right-hand, Dan Patrick. “I consider the enactment of school choice one of the hallmark policy victories of my career.”

Patrick noted that the bill had been passed by the Texas Senate six times since 2015 but had died each time in the Texas House.

“This session, the Texas Legislature worked together to deliver what parents have long been asking for — more opportunities for our students to reach their full potential,” said Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows.

Texas Rep. James Talarico, a former middle school teacher who represents the Austin suburb of Round Rock, criticized the signing of the bill.

“Today, Big Money won and the students of Texas lost,” he said in a speech Saturday. “Remember this day next time a school closes. Remember this day next time a teacher quits. Remember this day next time your property taxes go up because the state is defunding our schools.”

Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin said the passage of the bill could motivate angry parents during the next election cycle, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

“[Abbott] may have won this battle, but the war is not over,” she said. “There will be a vote on vouchers, and he can’t stop it, and it will be in November 2026.”

May 1 (UPI) — A newly created Religious Liberty Commission is tasked with reporting on religious liberty in the United States, threats against it and how to preserve religious liberty for future generations.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the commission during a National Day of Prayer event on the White House lawn on Thursday.

“We’re bringing back religion, and we’re bringing it back quickly and strongly,” Trump told attendees at the National Day of Prayer event.

“For America to be a great nation, we must always be ‘one nation, under God,'” Trump said.

Parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech for religious entities and institutional autonomy are the commission’s key focus areas.

It will have a chair and a vice chair to ensure the commission fulfills its mission.

The executive order says it is necessary to “ensure Americans can freely practice their faith without government interference.”

According to the executive order, recent federal and state policies have undermined religious freedom by targeting conscientious objectors, stopping parents from enrolling their children in faith-based schools, threatening the funding and non-profit status of religious entities and excluding religious groups from government programs.

It says the Biden administration’s Justice Department “targeted peaceful Christians while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses.”

The Religious Liberty Commission will investigate such matters and recommend policies to “restore and safeguard religious liberty for all Americans,” the executive order reads.

The White House afterward named Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as the commission’s chairman and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson as its vice chairman.

Eleven others are appointed to the commission:

• Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
• Bishop Robert Barron, bishop of Minnesota’s Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
• Carrie Prejean Boller, a former Miss California USA and 2009 Miss USA first runner-up.
• Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and a member of the Catholic University of America’s board of trustees.
• Pastor Franklin Graham, president and chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
• Allyson Ho, a partner and appellate attorney at the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm.
• Dr. Phil McGraw, host of the “Dr. Phil” television show.
• Eric Metaxas, a writer, speaker and radio host who has testified before Congress regarding anti-Semitism.
• Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive officer of First Liberty Institute.
• Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, which is the nation’s oldest Jewish congregation.
• Pastor Paula White, founder and president of Paula White Ministries and the National Faith Advisory Board.

Trump also briefly discussed his plans for “one big, beautiful bill” that would include tax cuts impacting working families, including an income tax deduction for interest paid on car loans when buying American-made vehicles.

He said the bill will support Medicaid for those who are in need and make America healthy and well again.