Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced on social media that his state will continue targeting professors pushing “leftist ideologies” in classrooms.
“Univ. of Texas professor was dismissed from an administrative post overseeing university academic affairs because of ideological differences,” Abbott wrote. “Texas is targeting professors who are more focused on pushing leftist ideologies rather than preparing students to lead our nation. We must end indoctrination and return to education fundamentals at all levels of education.”
The governor shared an article from Axios, which detailed a University of Texas professor’s dismissal over “ideological differences.” The professor, Art Markman, shared his dismissal on LinkedIn.
Texas similarly cracked down on state professors following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Texas’s Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, issued a warning to state educators who shared content relating to Kirk’s death.
In a letter addressed to superintendents, Morath wrote, “[The Texas Education Agency] has been made aware of some Texas public school educators that have posed and/or shared reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” Morath noted that the sentiments are not reflecting of the majority of Texas teachers.
“While the exercise of free speech is a fundamental right we are all blessed to share, it does not give carte blanche authority to celebrate or sow violence against those that share differing beliefs and perspectives,” he explained, noting that Kirk’s death is “heartbreaking.”
William Inboden, the newer executive vice president and provost of the University of Texas at Austin, has criticized the leftist ideas plaguing classrooms. Writing in the journal National Affairs, Inboden discussed the flaws of race and gender studies in academia, stating, “As an intellectual matter, classifying people and societies in race and gender terms or oppressor/oppressed binaries offers an incomplete, and at times impoverished view of the human person, the communities we form, and the endeavors we undertake. It also focuses more on what divides us, at the intellectual expense of what unites us in our shared personhood.”
