Gov. Greg Abbott's letter on administrative rules to agency heads does not indicate that his approval is required or that he might try to “veto” proposed rules, as some speculate. The face of the letter indicates that the governor’s office wants to be aware of what state agencies are doing with respect to rulemaking. To me, it looks a lot like he’s protecting the Legislature’s turf.
What if the state could adopt a program with a decades-long track record of containing health care cost growth to rates four times lower than national averages, while improving clients’ quality of care? While that may sound too good to be true, Texas was one of the first states to embrace this initiative, known as Medicaid managed care.
The Texas Constitution requires the Legislature “to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.” The state has the authority to create additional education programs that complement its constitutional mandates, including school choice.
Texas Supreme Court has treated the constitutional requirement for an "efficient" system of public free schools to mean that school districts must have "substantially equal access to similar revenues per pupil at similar levels of tax effort." What does that mean, exactly? Even the court doesn't know for sure.
