Chaplains In Schools, Counselors Optional

Texas public schools asked for stability, staffing, and support. Dan Patrick's Senate helped hand them another culture-war grenade with a visitor badge.

Senate Bill 763's official caption is plain: "Relating to allowing public schools to employ or accept as volunteers chaplains." TLO shows the bill was signed by the governor on June 18, 2023, and became effective September 1, 2023.

A local school board headache, gift-wrapped in piety

There are plenty of Texans of faith who understand the problem immediately. Public schools serve everybody: Baptists, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, kids still figuring it out, and families who would prefer Austin stop turning the classroom into a campaign prop.

SB 763 did not fund a wave of certified counselors. It opened the door for districts to employ or accept volunteer chaplains. That is a very different thing, and it drops the hardest questions onto local school boards already buried under politics.

Religious freedom is not a costume contest

Real religious freedom means government does not pick a lane for your kid's conscience. Patrick-world keeps trying to blur that line, then acts shocked when parents notice the state is suddenly very interested in who gets moral access to children at school.

If a family wants pastoral care, Texas has churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and homes for that. A public school should not need a denominational traffic cop to make it through algebra.

The contrast on the ballot

Vikki Goodwin's public-education focus is a better use of the Lieutenant Governor's office: fund neighborhood schools, respect families, and stop treating classrooms like a testing lab for Austin's next outrage cycle.

Ban Dan Patrick. Let Texas schools teach kids instead of auditioning for the next culture-war bill signing.